Teachers have class

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
CLASS: Maria.
____________________________________
TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
__________________________________________
TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L"
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
____________________________________________
TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
__________________________________
TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!
__________________________________________
TEACHER: Rodney, why do you always get so dirty?
RODNEY: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are. _______________________________________
TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."
MILLIE: I is...
TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, "I am."
MILLIE: All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."
_________________________________
TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.
______________________________________
TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?
CLYDE: No, teacher, it's the same dog.
___________________________________
TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher

Space pen

During the initial space flights, Nasa discovered that biro pens didn’t work under zero gravity conditions. To beat the problem, Nasa spent 6 years and $2 million in designing a pen for use in space. The pen would work under zero gravity conditions due to the pressurized ink inside, it would work under sub zero conditions, underwater, on glass and virtually any surface known to man. The Russians used a pencil.

Scoops and Vents

When it came to their sporting musclecar GTs, Ford were not averse to employing a little style and aggression to intimidate their opposition on the streets, and their owners behind the wheel. While the original XR GT and it’s successor, the XT GT, were subtle makeovers of the cars they were based on, when Ford upped the ante by going to a 351ci V8 engine, and gave the cars a bolder, more broad shouldered appearance, they used scoops and vents to distinguish the later GTs.

I'll cover the various models over the next few days.

Balance

If you want to put more balance in your life and vacation, read on. These practical tips will help you (and your family) enjoy your vacation more, guaranteed.

Choice
If you want to have a vacation that is more vacation and less work, it all starts with a choice. Am I willing to, and will I, leave the Blackberry off and not check my voice mail or email? While it is easy to make this statement, making the choice might be very hard. Hard or easy, in the end, it is as simple as a choice. If you choose not to work or be distracted by work-related items while on your vacation, you won’t be.

Urgent vs. Important
The ease of contact that technology brings us makes this choice even more clear. 30 years ago if you went on vacation it was harder to be sucked back into work because there weren’t so many easy ways to be in touch. With the mobile phone, laptop, and internet everywhere, it is easy to assume that everything back at work is urgent.

Most of it isn’t.
The decision or mental "tug" to work while on vacation is about the urgent things in life. Your family (or your vacation in general) is quite likely more important to you, but it is the perceived urgency of the work that draws us back in. Remember what is really important to you. During a vacation is an especially good time to remain focused on the important; and not the merely urgent things in our lives.

Remove the Distractions.
Leave your phone, your Blackberry at home – they will be just fine in the drawer. If you leave the gadgets at home instead of carrying them with you everywhere you go, you’ll be far less likely to check your messages while you’re in line for the ride or sitting by the beach.

Have a Plan
Have a plan at work before you leave. Change your voice mail and email announcement to let people know you aren't in touch for several days. This will leave you with fewer urgent items on your return, and lower your anxiety level while you are gone.

Keeping these things in mind will give you greater balance and help make your next vacation as refreshing and rejuvenating as it can be. Take these actions and you’ll have you best vacation ever, and you will return better equipped both mentally and physically to be highly effective back at work.

Can I have a drink of water?

His father sends a small boy to bed. Five minutes later....
"Da-ad...."
"What?" "I'm thirsty. Can you bring drink of water?"
"No. You had your chance. Lights out."
Five minutes later: "Da-aaaad....."
"WHAT?"
"I'm THIRSTY. Can I have a drink of water??"
"I told you NO!" If you ask again, I'll have to spank you!!"
Five minutes later......"Daaaa-aaaad....."
"WHAT!"
"When you come in to spank me, can you bring a drink of water?"

XP Falcon

The XP was the last facelift of the original Falcon and featured an aggressive, squared off look to the front end and more solid styling overall. The development of the car over the years since its introduction paid off, and the XP was very well regarded by the press of the time, now more than capable of matching its competitors and winning ‘Wheels’ magazines Car of the Year award for 1965. Also introduced with the XP was the first Fairmont, the prestige model in the Falcon range, fitted out with all the latest luxury features.



The XP was manufactured between March, 1965 and September, 1966. 70,998 were produced.

Out of office

Some suggestions for your “Out of Office” Email Automatic replies while you are on holidays:

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. I may be a little moody so be prepared.

2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.

3. Sorry to have missed you, but I am at the doctor's having my brain removed so I can be promoted to a management position.

4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from leave on 6 August. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first 10 words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.

6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.

7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

8. Hi, I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.

9. I've run away to join a different circus.

10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as "Sharon" instead of "Steve".

I got shingles

A man walked into a doctor's office and the receptionist asked him what he had. He replied, "I got shingles."
She said, "Fill out this form and supply your name, address, medical insurance number. When you're done, please take a seat."
Fifteen minutes later a nurse's aide came out and asked him what he had. He said, "I got shingles."
So she took down his height, weight, and complete medical history, then said, "Change into this gown and wait in the examining room."
A half hour later a nurse came in and asked him what he had. He said, "I got shingles."
So she gave him a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, and told him to wait for the doctor.
An hour later the doctor came in and asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles."
The doctor gave him a full-cavity examination, and then said, "I just checked you out thoroughly, and I can't find shingles anywhere. " The man replied, "They're outside in the truck. Where do you want them?"

XM Falcon

The XM was another styling facelift of the original XK, with a much heavier and impressive front grille and, in a major break from being a derivative of the contemporary U.S. model, tail lamps raised to boot level height for greater visibility. As an indication of things to come, some ‘sportiness’ was introduced with a dummy air scoop on the bonnet, the introduction of a two door hardtop and the greater availability of the 121hp, 200ci (3.3litre) Super Pursuit engine. And finally, the front suspension troubles were cured completely with the use of strengthened components.



The XM was manufactured between February, 1964 and March, 1965. 47,039 were produced.

Quotable quotes

“A good education is another name for happiness." - Ann Plato, educator and author

Your attention, please

All too rarely, airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight "safety lecture", and their other announcements a bit more entertaining. Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported:

1. On a Continental Flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort, and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."

2. On landing the stewardess said, "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out off this airplane."

3. As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Washington National, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

4. After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."

5. "In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite."

XL Falcon

The XL was introduced with some new styling changes, most notably to the grille, altering from a concave to a convex shape with recessed headlights and bumper mounted indicators. The tail lamps were revised and the rear roof line was changed to reflect Ford’s Thunderbird style theme. The most serious changes were made underneath with significant mechanical upgrades - a new gearbox, clutch, starter, air and oil filters - and an attempt to sort the weak front suspension without complete success.



The XL was manufactured between August, 1962 and February, 1964. 75,765 were produced.

Close up of a sea horse

What I did

One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their P.J.'s, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers thrown all about the front yard. The door to his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess.

A lamp had been knocked over, and a throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, Breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand lay piled up by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and other piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried that she might be ill, or worse!!

He found her lounging into the bedroom, still in her pajamas, reading a novel.

She smiled, looked up at him and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?"

She again smiled and answered, "you know everyday when you come home from work and ask me what in the world did I do today?"

"Yes", he replied reluctantly.

She answered, "We'll, today I didn't do it!!"

XK Falcon

The XK was the first Falcon released, and was based very much on the equivalent U.S. Falcon, copying its styling almost without change. While fitted with robust mechanicals - a 144ci (2.4 litre) six cylinder engine and choice of three speed manual or two speed automatic - the U.S. designed suspension, especially at the front, was found to be fragile on Australia’s rougher roads, and warranty claims were so costly for Ford that there were rumours that production would be discontinued. But with the support of the U.S. parent company, the car survived.



The XK was manufactured between September, 1960 and August, 1962. 68,456 were produced.

Water police

Have your classes look at how water wise your school is and their homes are: Calculate the following across the whole school: These quantities of water are approximates only. What are they for your school? Your students may like to calculate them
Washing face or hands: 2 litres
Taking a shower (standard shower head) 10 minutes: 100 litres
Taking a shower (low-flow shower head) 10 minutes : 50 litres
Taking a bath: 80 litres
Brushing teeth (water running): 4 litres
Brushing teeth (water turned off): 1 litre
Flushing the toilet (standard-flow toilet): 10 litres
Flushing the toilet (dual flush toilet): 3 litres
Getting a drink: half a litre
Washing dishes by hand: 20 litres
Running a dishwasher: 30 litres
Doing a load of laundry: 60 litres
Watering lawn: 600 litres
Washing car: 100 litres

How?

A man went to the Police Station wishing to speak with the burglar who had broken into his house the night before.
"You'll get your chance in court," said the Desk Sergeant.
"No, no, no!" said the man. "I want to know how he got into the house without waking my wife. I've been trying to do that for years!"

XC GS interior

Interior with full instrumentation and sports steering wheel.

South Africa Focuses on Leadership Standards for Principals

Making Science Matter
April 2007 | Volume 49 | Number 4
Message from the Executive Director /Gene R. Carter

Against a backdrop of optimism, rapid change, and profound unresolved challenges, South African society continues to struggle against the dark cloud of apartheid. While education is seen as the key to both economic and social progress, South Africa's principals face staggering responsibilities with scarce resources, fragile support systems, and a pressing need for leadership development.
Disadvantaged students—often concentrated in particular communities—low educational outcomes, sexual violence, and health issues further complicate the work of South Africa's principals, who face daunting statistics. Among 139 schools in 2006, fewer than 20 percent of the learners passed grade 12. At this critical juncture in its development, school management is considered by many to be the basic weakness in South African education. The absence of standards for principals and the means to forge standards has long been a missing element in the professionalization of the principalship.
In an attempt to address these challenges, the South African department of education has acknowledged the need to reform how principals are prepared and supported. Building on its 2004 Education Leadership and Management Policy Framework, the department approved as policy the 2006 South African Standards for Principalship. This policy framework affirmed the importance of leadership in the process of school improvement and established the qualities and expertise required of principals.
Research confirms that effective principals are the lynchpins of school improvement. They directly affect the implementation and sustainability of reforms focused on improving learning and teaching. They lead change; inspire teachers, staff, students, and parents; leverage resources to make improvements happen; and bring community members into the process of change. The new South African policy framework is at the core of a broad effort to help retool principals and to find ways to improve student performance in many schools. This framework focuses on coordinated and sustainable training, technical assistance, and support systems for South African principals. It includes the Advanced Certificate of Education and National Curriculum Statement; incorporates new research and theory about how higher education can best support school leadership; and makes strategic use of the experience and expertise to be shared among peers.
This requires dedicated partnerships between government, the higher education community, and others. It requires commitment to effectively equip and offer incentives to school leaders to deliver on the government's mandates. Furthermore, it is clear that decisive and bold action is needed to transform dysfunctional schools into successful and effective institutions focused on learning and teaching.
Recently, a team comprising representatives from the Harvard University School of Health, the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development held preliminary conversations in South Africa with colleagues from the National Department of Education, the Eastern Cape Department of Education, the University of Witwatersrand School of Education, and the University of Fort Hare School of Education. Participants explored a collaboration between South Africa and the United States to develop new models for the preparation and support of school leaders and managers.
This collaboration provides an opportunity for South African and U.S. researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to develop sustainable strategies to prepare school leaders for current and future educational challenges in both countries. Robert Quinn, author of Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within (1996), focuses on the story of the hero's journey that involves individual transformation and change of identity. Through this transformation, Quinn says, paradigms change and the individual aligns with the surrounding environment.
This new journey, which principals in South Africa are preparing to take, is not unique to their part of the globe. It is a journey that principals in every country—including the United States—must make as they face their own rapid changes and unresolved challenges.

In heaven

An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, "Ah, you're an engineer — you're in the wrong place." So the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After a while, they've got air conditioning, flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is becoming a pretty popular guy. One day God calls Satan up on the telephone and asks with a sneer, "So, how's it going down there in hell?" Satan replies, "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning, flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next." God replies, "What??? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake — he should never have gotten down there; send him up here." Satan says, "No way! I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him." God says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue." Satan laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"

XC GS four door with GS 12 slot wheels

But, we're helping

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens walks into a bar and orders a martini.
The bartender asks, “Olive or Twist?”

XC GS hardtop with rear wing scoops.

Bad dog!

Thanks

A man visiting a doctor says, "Doctor I just dropped in to tell you how much I benefited from your treatment."
The doctor replied, "But you are not one of my patients."
The man said, "I know. But my uncle Bill was, and I am his heir."

XC

The GS Rally pack offered on the XC range was quite a comprehensive package, including GT style bonnet, blacked out grille and window trims, long range driving lamps if the car was based on the Falcon 500 with the round main headlamps, bumper over-riders, full instrumentation, sports steering wheel, and 12 slot wheels. If the GS was based on the Fairmont with the rectangular headlights, the long range lamps were not offered. Hardtops were also fitted with the rear wing scoops, similar to XB GT’s. It is interesting to note that these scoops were not offered on XB GS’s or on XC Cobra’s. Nor was there an availability of any stripes.

Trust

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon them and to let them know that you trust them." -- Booker T. Washington

Play your age

A woman in Atlantic City was losing at the roulette wheel. When she was down to her last 10 dollars, she asked the fellow next to her for a good number.

“Why don’t you play your age?” he suggested. The woman agreed, and then put her money on the table.

The next thing the guy with the advice knew, the woman had fainted and fallen to the floor. He rushed right over.

“Did she win?” he asked.

“No” replied the attendant. “She put 10 dollars on 33 and 46 came in.”

When is a GS a GS?

When the original sale receipt tells you it is one. If you suspect that your car is a GS but has no actual GS badges on it there is nothing on the car’s data plate that will tell you that it is a GS, unlike a GT. One giveaway is to check the wiring under the dash as genuine GS cars had the GT wiring loom to allow fitment of the GT dash and its extra instruments. If your car has the extra gauges, but a cut and shut loom, you would suspect it was not original. Unfortunately, the Ford Motor Company of Australia is not, at this time, answering queries about suspected GS cars as it is doing for GTs.

Control

"Everyone's life is under someone's control - it might as well be under your own so that you can direct your destiny." Harry Tucker, Senior Enterprise Strategy Adviser – Microsoft

Phil and Will

Phil and Will built a skating rink in the middle of a pasture on a cold winter.

A shepherd leading his flock decided to take a shortcut across the rink. The sheep, however, were afraid of the ice and wouldn't cross it. Desperate, the shepherd began tugging them to the other side.

"Look at that," remarked Phil to Will. "That guy is trying to pull the wool over our ice."

XB GS stripes

GS stripes were available in many colours. Both four door saloon and two door hardtop could have stripes in; blck, gold, dark gold,silver, orange and dark orange. Examples of the more popular colours are seen above, but here is a photo of tan XB GS featuring the rare orange GS stripes.

The problem

"If you start to think the problem is “out there”, stop yourself. That thought is the problem.” Stephen Covey

Disorder in the Court

There is a book called Disorder in the Court. These are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters - who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
Some of these are excellent ...
Q: What is your date of birth?
A: July fifteenth.
Q: What year?
A: Every year.
Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the accident?
A: Gucci sweatshirt and Reeboks.

Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?

Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: By whose death was it terminated?

Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?

Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.


Q: All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.

Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him.

Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.

Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere

XB GS exterior treatments

This is an 302ci V8 powered XB Fairmont GS without the displacement badges.



Careful inspection of the GS stripes on the XB at the front reveals some variation in their placement. Some have the stripe right up against the ‘seam’ for the little end cap, like the wagon above, and some have them set back from that. In fact, some cars even have different placement from side to side as in this car, although, there is some evidence that the drivers wing was replaced at some stage. The decal may well not have been re-applied with the same ‘factory care’.

Toil

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." John Ruskin, 1819-1900, Artist and Author

Dishes

Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Dishes.
Dishes who?
Dishes the police! Come out with your hands up!

XB GS stripe

At the rear:



A close up look at the form of the stripe at the front. Note also the ‘351’ engine identification.

Which are you?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee,"
she replied
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?“

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter.
"When adversity knocks on your door,
how do you respond?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"
Think of this: Which am I?
Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat?

Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?
Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you……
May we all be COFFEE

What?

Accordinig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Pettry amzanig huh?

XB GS wagon, van and utes

Like I said...

Happiness

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere." - Agnes Repplier

Do you think I'm stupid?

Two guys were fishing down by the Ohio River on different sides of the riverbank at night. Guy number one was catching a whole bunch of fish for his family, but guy number two hadn't caught any and was frustrated and called out to guy number one "How come you've been catching all them there fish and I ain't caught a single one?"
Guy number one replied, " I don’t know.... why don’t ya come on over here?"
"I don’t know.... I don’t see a bridge, and their aint no boat, and I don’t swim to well"
Guy number one picks up his flashlight, turns it on, and replies, " Why don’t you walk across this here beam off light?"
Guy number two was outraged and replied "do you think am stupid? When I get half way you'll turn it off!!!"

XB GS Coupes

They don't walk in your shoes... Click, Click, Click!

By Pauline Fraser

Pauline was born and raised in Nova Scotia and now calls British Columbia home. She is married and has three children, including a daughter with autism. Raising a special needs child was not how she had planned to spend her life, but now that she has, she wouldn't change a thing. Her daughter has taught her so much about life and living that she can't imagine how empty life would be without her
We ducked into the dimly lit thrift shop to get out of the rain. Like so many things since our daughter's birth, I hadn't planned on a trip to this place. But I figured we'd see what they had since we were there.

"Hi, today is stuff a bag day. Would you like one?" The clerk asked.

"What is stuff a bag day?"

"You take a bag and stuff it with what ever you want and it's only $3. Best deal in town."

"Okay, sounds great," I said, despite the fact I hadn't planned on buying anything.

I took my six-year-old daughter's hand and we started to wander around. Suddenly there was a tug on my hand and my attention was being directed to the shoe section. She shares my weakness for shoes, so we stopped for a minute to look. I let go of her hand and she reached out to touch a pair of shiny black shoes with a strap and silver buckle.

"Buy me?" She inquires.

"Oh, Sweetie, they are tap shoes. You aren't taking tap."

"Buy me?" She repeats.

"Well, let's try them on."

She sits on the floor and removes her bright pink rain boots, with Barbie on the sides, and easily slides the new shoes on. A perfect fit. When she stands up she hears 'click.' She takes a step. Click, Click. Slowly recognition dawns, as she makes the connection between the shoes and her moving feet. Click, Click, Click. "Buy me?" With a hopeful look in her eyes. Again, "Buy me, peas?"
"Okay Sweetie, take them off and put them in the bag."

We look around some more and get a few t-shirts, pants, books and games and a naked baby doll. Well, it's stuff a bag day - might as well get my money's worth, I think to myself.

The sun has come back out as we emerge from our little side trip and we continue on our way. As we near the car, Amara reaches for the bag. As she climbs into the back seat, I give her the bag wondering what treasure she is looking for. The shoes, of course. She is my daughter after all.

"My wear." It's not a question, so I took the tag off and helped her with the buckle. Our next stop was the grocery store and these shoes were made to make noise, especially on my little girl's feet. This could be interesting...

Click, Click, Click - people turn to look as we enter the store. Click, Click, Click. I can feel the disapproving stares of the proper people. People who would never allow their daughter to wear tap shoes to the grocery store. I hold my head up with pride. The click, click, click is music to my ears.

"Excuse me dear. Is your daughter in tap this year?"

"No." I replied.
"Well why on earth would you allow her to wear tap shoes, here, of all places? They make such a noise."

"Yes, isn't it wonderful?"

"Wonderful? My dear, this is not the place to wear those shoes."

"Oh, I think this is the perfect place to wear them. You see she asked for them."

"Just because she asked for them, doesn't mean you have to get them for her."

"You don't understand," I said. "When she was a baby, we were told she would never walk or talk. It has taken a lot of hard work and patience but she asked for the shoes and the click, click, click says that she can walk."

My daughter, who is always on the move, is 18 now and will graduate from grade 12 in June. It has not always been easy, but it has all been worthwhile. She has taught me that it doesn't matter what others think. They don't walk in your shoes.
And just like the ladies in the purple hats*, sometimes you simply have to wear tap shoes to the grocery store - if for nothing else, just the sheer joy of hearing the click, click, click.

* Ladies in purple hats are groups of women who have reached a certain age and now can allow themselves to enjoy life without fear of what others think.

Only in America

Only in America... can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in America... are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
Only in America... do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in America... do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet Coke.
Only in America... do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters.
Only in America... do they leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
Only in America... do they use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so they won't miss a call from someone they didn't want to talk to in the first place.
Only in America... do they buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
Only in America... do they use the word "politics" to describe the process so well; "Poli" in Latin meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "bloodsucking creatures".
Only in America... do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering

XB GS continued - sedans

After the swoopy XA, the XB Rally stripe returned to a straight line, and in form, with its turned down section at the front, it closely resembled the GT stripe on the XW. The GS badge returned, once more at the rear end of the stripe.

Change

"I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change." - Jim Rohn

"Slowness to change usually means fear of the new." - Philip Crosby

“Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.” -- I Ching No. 3

“If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.” -- Norman Vincent Peale

Making people happy

Bill, Hillary and Vice President Gore were on their way back to Washington on Air Force One, when Bill said " I'd like to drop a $100 bill out of the plane and make one person very happy".
Hillary thought for a moment then replied "I’d rather drop ten, $10 bills out and make ten people very happy".
To which Vice President Gore said " I would drop a hundred $1 bills out and make a hundred people very happy".

The pilot then spoke up and said " Why don't all three of you jump out and make 250 million people very happy?"

XB GS

Once more Ford offered the GS Rally Pack on the XB model and again extended it across the whole range; sedans, hardtops, wagons, utes and vans. The XB model, however, offered the GS buyer the chance - while accepting the 260hp V8 gave away 40 hp to the GT - to buy a car as close to the looks of the GT than before. The twin scoop bonnet was part of the GS package for the XB, but the Option 56 ‘driving light’ grille was a separate factory option as were four wheel disk brakes. It was just a matter of ticking the right boxes on the order form.

No Parking Allowed!

By Matthew C. Horne, motivational speaker and leading authority in maximizing human potential and self- development. He is also the president of Optimum Success International and author of "A Massive Dose of Motivation”

My company motto is Your Best Life Possible Awaits You. I say this because your human potential is always beyond your past successes and failures. Your best life possible is what you're capable of living if your vision for your life is beyond the good and bad of your past.

Looking back when your future awaits you is what keeps people parked in life. Parking is an enemy to your limitless possibilities, and will undoubtedly keep you grounded in life. Anything which enters your life and forces you to swing the momentum away from your dream is what forces you to park.

I've made the vow to lose myself in my dream this year. I know that if I lose myself in my dream, then it will begin to make decisions for me which are in accordance with the actualization of my dream.

Your dream, when it consumes you, forms a protective barrier which sets off an alarm when anything poses a detriment to it! So, if you're immersed in your dream, then it becomes difficult to park because the momentum is pulling you in the direction of it constantly, and combating the hindering forces of mediocrity which want to steal your greatness.

Immersing yourself in your dream keeps you looking and moving forward at all times. This is why my favourite book says "Where there is no vision the people perish." Why? Our nature is to surpass any current standing, good or bad, and evolve into the divine beings we are. This occurs as we press towards different marks in life. Forget the good and bad of the past and press.

Never fear failure at the onset of any endeavour. We become discouraged in life when we fall short of our various marks, but if you look back you'll see clearly that every endeavour showed you things about yourself which are pivotal for you functioning at the level you are currently at. You never just stumble into situations in life; you're strategically placed into them with the design that they'll introduce you to some facet of yourself which is in accordance with the true you.

Any situation in life, if viewed correctly, will serve you and not be a deterrent if viewed with an optimistic perspective. There's good and bad in every situation in life. It's just a matter of the perspective you take when viewing the past which determines whether you park, or see the good and allow it to accelerate you towards your vision.

This day, this month, this year, this lifetime, fixate your own NO PARKING sign on your heart, and everything in your life will move you in the direction of your best life possible!

Need some help?

A drunk was staggering down the main street of town. Somehow, he managed to make it up the stairs to the cathedral and into the building, where he crashed from pew to pew. He finally made his way to a side aisle and into a confessional. A priest had been observing the man's sorry progress. Figuring the fellow was in need of some assistance, he proceeded to enter his side of the confessional. His attention was rewarded only by a lengthy silence. Finally he asked, "May I help you, my son?" "I dunno."
Came the drunk's voice from behind the partition. "You got any toilet paper on your side?"

XA GS - the final installment

Various colours of stripes were available. Four door saloons could have the XA GS stripe in black, gold, silver or orange, and on two door hardtops, in black or gold.

With the availability, in cars but not utes or vans, of a 260hp two barrel version of the 351ci Cleveland V8, the GS again offered an alternative to the GT. Indeed, with the escalating values and appreciation of the GT models, many collectors are turning to the GS, and finding that their predecessors fully appreciated their worth and the fact that with a few simple bolt on parts - manifold and four barrel carburettor - they could be excellent junior GTs.

All of the XA Falcon range could be fitted with the Option 56 ‘driving lights’ grille which was standard on the XA GT. It would seem that the take up of this option on XA GS’s was not as great as that for the same offering on the XB model. However, unlike the XB the XA GT style bonnet was not part of the GS package, nor was it an option on the range.

Quotable quotes

"If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong" - Charles Kettering, inventor

Pearly gates

A woman who died found herself standing outside the Pearly Gates, being greeted by St. Peter.
She asked him, "Oh, is this place what I really think it is? It's so beautiful.
Did I really make it to heaven?"
To which St. Peter replied, "Yes, my dear, these are the Gates to Heaven. But you must do one more thing before you can enter." The woman was very excited, and asked of St. Peter what she must do to pass through the gates. "Spell a word," St. Peter replied. "What word?" she asked.
"Any word," answered St. Peter. "It's your choice." The woman promptly replied, "Then the word I will spell is love.L-o-v-e."
St. Peter congratulated her on her good fortune to have made it to Heaven, and asked her if she would mind taking his place at the gates for a few minutes while he went to the bathroom.
"I'd be honored," she said, "but what should I do if someone comes while you are gone?"
St. Peter reassured her, and instructed the woman to simply have any newcomers to the Pearly Gates to spell a word as she had done.
So the woman is left sitting in St. Peter's chair and watching the beautiful angels soaring around her when a man approaches the gates. She realizes it is her loser husband.
"What happened?" she cried, "Why are you here?"
Her husband stared at her for a moment, then said, "I was so drunk when I left your funeral, I was in an accident. And now I am here? Did I really make it to Heaven?"
To which the woman replied, "Not yet. You must spell a word first."
"What word?" he asked.
The woman responded, "Czechoslovakia."

XA GS variations

Not only did the GS depart from previous years in having a two door, but Ford also made it available on utes



And vans

Lying

"Lying is done with words and also with silence." --Adrienne Rich, poet and teacher

Hallucinations

A guy thought he was dead, but in reality he was very much alive.
His hallucination became a real problem for his family and they finally took him to see a psychiatrist. After spending many laborious sessions trying to convince the guy he was still alive, the psychiatrist tried one last approach. He opened his medical book and proceeded to show the man that dead men don’t bleed. After a mind-numbing study, the man seemed convince that dead men don’t bleed, and the psychiatrist asked: “Do you now agree that dead men don’t bleed?” “Yes I do” the man replied. “Very well, then,” the psychiatrist said. He took out a pin and pricked the man’s finger. Out came a drop of blood. The doctor asked. “What does that tell you?” “Oh my goodness!” The patient exclaimed as he stared doubtfully at his finger…. “Dead men do bleed!!”

The XC Cobra Globes

Perfectionism

“We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves the way we are, and why we don't accept others the way they are.” - Don Miguel Ruiz

“The maxim ‘Nothing but perfection’ may be spelled ‘Paralysis.’” - Winston Churchill

“After enough mirror gazing, we all develop our ‘cosmic sense of humour.’ We no longer try to be perfect, or try to get all our work done in time. We become content with whatever life brings. Just to deal with what comes up without crucifying ourselves or others is enough of a challenge.” - Paul Ferrini

“Good enough never is.” - Debbi Fields

Bloody hell!

Two bats are hanging in their cave. One turns to the other and says, "Oh, I'm really thirsty for some fresh blood."
The other bat is amazed and says, "Well, it’s a bit late. Daylight is almost here, and we can't be exposed to any light - you know we'll die." "Yeah, I know," says the first bat, "but I'm really starving for it."
So he flies out of the cave and returns five minutes later with blood dripping from his mouth.
"You lucky thing. Where'd you find blood that quick?" asked the second bat.
"You see that tree over there in the distance?" mumbled the bat, his mouth full of blood.
"Yeah, I think I do!"
"Well, I didn't."

XA GS characteristics

The swoopy stripe was still a highlight.



The GS could be ordered in station wagon guise.

Quotable quotes

“Learning to communicate is like taking out an insurance policy. You never know when you’ll need it, but it’s too late to take it out after you need it” - Allan Kaufman

The best son

There was a little old lady who was nearly blind. She had three sons and they wanted to prove which one was the best son to her.
So son #1 bought her a 15-room mansion thinking this would surely be the best any of them could offer her.
Son #2 bought her a beautiful Mercedes with a chauffeur included thinking he would surely win her approval.
Son #3 had to do something even better than these so he bought her a trained parrot. This parrot had been trained for 15 years to memorize the entire Bible. You could mention any verse in the Bible and the parrot could quote it word for word. How useful his nearly blind mother would find that!
Well, the old lady went to the first son and said, "Son, the house is just gorgeous but it's really much too big for me. I only live in one room, and it's much too large for me to clean and take care of. I really don't need the house, but thank you anyway."
Then she explained to her second son, "Son, the car is beautiful, it has everything you could ever want on it, but I don't drive and I really don't like that driver, so please return the car."
Next, she went to son number three and said, "Son, I just want to thank you for that thoughtful gift. The chicken was small, but delicious."

XA GS Options

Cars came with the optional XA GT ‘driving lights’ grille.



There was now also a two door hardtop model.

Quotable quotes

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." - Alvin Toffler

Hello?

The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialed the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whispered, "Hello?"
Feeling put out at the inconvenience of having to talk to a youngster the boss asked, "Is your Daddy home?"
"Yes," whispered the small voice.
"May I talk with him?" the man asked.
To the surprise of the boss, the small voice whispered, "No."
Wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your Mommy there?"
"Yes", came the answer.
"May I talk with her?"
Again the small voice whispered, "No".
Knowing that it was not likely that a young child would be left home alone, the boss decided he would just leave a message with the person who should be there watching over the child.
"Is there anyone there besides you?" the boss asked the child.
"Yes" whispered the child, "A policeman."
Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, "May I speak with the policeman?"
"No, he's busy," whispered the child.
"Busy doing what?" asked the boss.
Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the fireman," came the whispered answer.
Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone the boss asked, "What is that noise?"
"A hello-copper," answered the whispering voice.
"What is going on there?" asked the boss, now alarmed.
In an awed whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper."
Alarmed, concerned and more than just a little frustrated, the boss asked, "Why are they there?"
Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle, "They're looking for me."

XA GS

Once more the GS Rally Pack appeared on the Australian designed XA. Most of the options remained the same although, while retaining the stripe, they lost any exterior GS badging. The wheels were different too. Instead of wheel covers, the GS models got versions of the 12 slot steel wheels with plain brushed centre caps as used on the early XA GTs.

The stripe got swoopy to follow the body contours.



And, once again, dark cars got lighter stripes.

Fifth-graders get an early introduction to business basics

By RACHEL KONRAD Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Like any ambitious entrepreneur, Amy Lee has created a global marketing plan, approved the product manufacturing specifications and memorized a business pitch to venture capitalists. "I'm nervous, but I think I can get people to invest," said the president and founder of Friends Forever Bracelet Inc., a jewellery retailer that plans a major Internet advertising campaign in China.
After a brief conversation with investors, she walked away with $32 in fake currency — no treasure for a Silicon Valley executive, but a proud fortune for an 11-year-old girl. Amy is a fifth grader at San Francisco's Jean Parker Elementary School, where she's enrolled in a month-long crash course in the fundamentals of business administration. The students learn new words like "revenue" and "prototype," meet venture capitalists and executives, and even tour the glass offices of San Francisco's financial district.
Jean Parker, for example, is on the edge of San Francisco's Chinatown and many students are the children of first-generation Asian immigrants. Advocates say the initiative gets students thinking about entrepreneurship, finance, marketing and other real-world jobs, expanding their options beyond firefighters, veterinarians and other typical fifth-grade career picks. Proponents — including millionaire backers from the tech industry — want every school in America to teach business basics.
"Business curriculum engages students in learning much more than the basic '2-plus-2-is-4' system, and it gives them a way to connect to their education," said Gerald Richards, executive director for the Bay Area Office of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.The group sponsors its own business school-style programs for students ages 11 through 18 in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami, Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
Celia Magtoto, a teacher at Jean Parker, said the program gets her 30 fifth-graders thinking about careers far different from those of their parents, many of whom work blue-collar jobs. Magtoto initially was concerned that a program promoting business culture could marginalize aspiring musicians, painters and other kids interested in noncorporate careers. But she said she quickly realized that the kids — who have music, art and other classes — rarely glimpse the business world. The program turns some of her shyest wallflowers into straight-talking ramrods. "I see kids who normally wouldn't talk to their peers suddenly pitching their company to adults they don't even know — that's great for self-esteem," Magtoto said. "And it's great for them to see that there are adults out there who really care and really listen to them."

Rrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!

This guy needs a job and decides to apply at the zoo. As it happened, their star attraction, a gorilla, had passed away the night before and they had carefully preserved his hide. They tell this guy that they'll pay him well if he would dress up in the gorillas skin and pretend to be the gorilla so people will keep coming to the zoo. Well, the guy has his doubts, but Hey! He needs the money, so he puts on the skin and goes out into the cage. The people all cheer to see him. He plays up to the audience and they just eat it up. This isn't so bad, he thinks, and he starts really putting on a show, jumping around, beating his chest and roaring, swinging around. During one acrobatic attempt, though, he loses his balance and crashes through some safety netting, landing square in the middle of the lion cage! As he lies there stunned, the lion roars. He's terrified and starts screaming, "Help, Help, Help!"
The lion races over to him, places his paws on his chest and hisses, "Shut up or we'll BOTH lose our jobs!"

XY GS continued

The GS Pack was available on wagons too.

Why we will always have books

“Computers will never take the place of books. You can't stand on a floppy disk to reach a high shelf. “ - Sam Ewing

Rock band

Doug had just formed his own rock band, and his little brother said one day,
“Doug, I wish you and your band could be on TV!”
“You think we’re good, eh?”
“Then I could turn you off!”

XY GS steering wheel

No matter what was fitted, all came with a GS badged steering wheel.

The Critical Years: For Teachers, Middle School Is Test of Wills

….. Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Corinne Kaufman, a math teacher at Seth Low Intermediate School in Brooklyn, has spent 17 years working with middle school students, learning how to turn insults into teaching moments and head off fights. When a student at Seth Low Intermediate School loudly pronounced Corinne Kaufman a “fat lady” during a fire drill one recent day, Mrs. Kaufman, a 45-year-old math teacher, calmly turned around. “Voluptuous,” she retorted, then proceeded to define the unfamiliar term, cutting off the laughter and offering a memorable vocabulary lesson in the process.

Such are the survival skills Mrs. Kaufman has acquired over 17 years at Seth Low, a large middle school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: How to snuff out brewing fistfights before the first punch is thrown, how to coax adolescents crippled by low self-esteem into raising their hands, how to turn every curveball, even the biting insult, into a teachable moment. But not all middle school teachers can do it.

Faced with increasingly well-documented slumps in learning at a critical age, educators in New York and across the nation are struggling to rethink middle school, particularly in cities, where the challenges of adolescent volatility, spiking violence and lagging academic performance are more acute. As they do so, they are running up against a key problem: a teaching corps marked by high turnover, and often lacking expertise in both subject matter and the topography of the adolescent mind.

In New York City, the nation’s largest school system, middle school teachers account for 22 percent of the 41,291 teachers who have left the school system since 1999 even though they make up only 17 percent of the overall teaching force, according to the United Federation of Teachers. In Philadelphia, researchers found that 34.2 percent of new middle school teachers in one representative year quit after their first year, compared with 21.1 percent of elementary school teachers and 26.3 percent of high school teachers.

“There was a lot more anger and outbursts,” Christian Clarke, 29, a Bronx high school teacher, recalled of the students he encountered during his four years teaching middle school. “Twice as much time was spent on putting out fires; twice as much time was spent getting the class quiet. Twice as much time was spent on defusing anger in the kids.” A good middle school teacher needs to know how to channel such anger into class work, and whether inappropriate questions like “Are you gay?” (as a Seth Low student recently asked her math teacher) merit serious discussion or feigned deafness.

“You have to have a huge sense of humour and a small ego,” said Jason Levy, the principal of Intermediate School 339 in the Bronx. “There are some people who are born to do it and some who learn to do it, and there are some people who really shouldn’t do it.” Yet the preparation for these jobs is often inadequate. The Education Trust, a Washington-based advocacy group, has asserted that a “scandalously high” number of middle school classes are taught by teachers lacking even a college minor in their assigned subjects. Around the country, middle school teachers are often trained as elementary school generalists or as high school subject specialists, with little understanding of young adolescent psychology.

“We’re really in a malpractice kind of environment, where we’re preparing teachers for elementary classrooms and high school classrooms but not middle-grades classrooms,” said Peggy Gaskill, research chairwoman of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, an alliance of educators, researchers and others seeking to improve middle school education. Dr. Gaskill has found that while 46 states offer some sort of credential specifically for middle school teachers, only 24 require it.

Three years ago, New York State began offering a special middle school certification for fifth through ninth grade, for teachers whose training emphasizes young adolescent pedagogy and development. But it is not mandatory to teach in middle school, and so far, few have pursued it. Of New York City’s 13,296 middle school teachers, only 82 are certified as “middle school generalists.” Some policy makers fear that stricter credentialing requirements could further narrow the pool of potential middle school teachers.

Disagreement

A couple making plans for their vacation.
Wife: I am afraid the mountain air would disagree with me.
Husband: My Love, it wouldn’t dare!

XY GS - badges

It is also worth noting that the GS was available on both the 200ci and 250ci six cylinder engines, as well as the 302ci and 351ci V8s.

When the 302ci V8 was fitted, the cars came with the V8 badge.



But when the 351ci V8 was fitted, the displacement was proudly announced, as seen on the black GS above, and the enlargement below.

Quotable quotes

"Each today, well-lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and each tomorrow a vision of hope. Look, therefore, to this one day, for it and it alone is life." - Sanskrit poem

Office help

A man with a piece of paper in his hand comes into an office where another man is sitting next to a shredding machine.
"Do you know how to operate this thing?" he asks. "I have an important paper here and I want to make sure this is done right."
"Sure," the other man answers. "Just put the paper in here and press this button."
The first man does so, saying, "Great. And where do the copies come out?"

GS continued

It can be forgotten that the GS package did not necessarily always come with the driving lamps as shown with this lovely Bronze Wine XY with cream vinyl roof.



Or that it could be ordered with ‘plain’ Falcon 500s, and not just Fairmonts.

A higher perspective on time

"Be mindful of how you approach time. Watching the clock is not the same as watching the sun rise." - Sophia Bedford-Pierce

What would your soul consider a waste of time?

To a soul, the only real time is right NOW. Not the future or the past. It lives in connecting deeply with the rich experience of each moment. Through awareness we can be in touch with our authentic self and how it perceives all of the energies and guidance around and within us.

Intentions

I intend to live forever – so far, so good.

XY GS Part 2

The GS stripe was available in a variety of colours, including orange, as on this Fairmont, which also has GT wheels and front spoiler.

School needs matter most

By Jack Keating
The patterns of enrolments across Australian school sectors reported in The Age (February 27, 2007, "Parents shun state schools") reflect a trend that now spans a generation. Since the Whitlam Government released its Karmel report in 1975 and made substantial levels of funding available to non-government schools there has been a steady drift from government to non-government schools that averages about 0.4 per cent per year. The responses to this trend from governments and other stakeholders reflect a 30-year-old debate in Australia about public education and the funding of non-government schools. This debate has maintained a public perception of a stand-off between the government and non-government school sectors that has crippled any capacity for rational policy on these issues at the national and state levels.
Ownership of the schools should not matter as long as students have reasonable access to schools that will deliver a good quality education within a curriculum that meets public expectations. For example, the Netherlands and Belgium, both of which have strong public systems, have a majority of their schools enrolments in publicly funded church schools. The problem in Australia, and unlike the situation in most other OECD countries, is that despite public funding, non-government schools can be selective in their enrolments, through fees, scholarships and other means. Thus the long-standing fear in Australia is that the drift in enrolments will deprive government schools of their better-off and more scholastically capable students. This would lead to government schools being seen as residual places for students from poor household and students who are rejected from non-government schools because of their weak scholastic performances or behaviour.
There is some evidence for this fear. The recent growth in non-government enrolments has mainly been in the independent, non-Catholic sector, and the increased enrolments are strongly concentrated in students from wealthier families. However, these broad figures hide other patterns. The largest element of the non-government sector, Catholic schools, is relatively stable in its enrolment share, which is distributed fairly evenly across all income groups. The sector looks like, and to a large extent behaves like, a public sector, being mostly publicly funded, delivering the public curriculum and charging mostly low fees, and in some cases no fees.
If they were added to the government school enrolments in Australia, as they are in most other OECD countries, public education market share would grow to 85 per cent. On the other hand within the government sector, apart from the loss of some better-off students to the independent sector there are changing internal patterns of enrolments. In Victoria, there has been a significant migration of better-off students to large primary and secondary schools that achieve good results in tests and the VCE. Correspondingly there is a growing concentration of poorer students in small schools with weak results.
The trends are expressions of a robust school education market. As numerous surveys have shown, parents choose on the basis of their image of a good school, not the sector. Schools are aware that the surest way to achieve this image is to concentrate scholastic power among their enrolments. The temptation to use selection to achieve this is high. The problem is not the residualisation of the government school sector. A significant proportion of government schools do very well. The list of the schools that gained most entries into Melbourne and Monash universities, published in The Sunday Age (February 18, 2007) included six government and no Catholic schools.
However, there is strong evidence that the growing concentration of poorer students in small schools is a serious equity issue. As the OECD Program for International Student Assessment has shown, overall standards of Australian schooling are higher. However, we are weak on the equity front with large gaps between the high and low-performing students. A continued drift in enrolments segregated on the basis of wealth and scholastic levels will surely make us weaker. The current policy setting of many and possibly all state governments is to have their government schools out-compete the non-government schools for enrolment share, especially among the middle-class.
In going this way they have introduced more selective measures including selective entry schools and programs. Selection is zero sum and will only accelerate the social segregation. The immediate policy challenge is twofold. First there is a need to jettison old notions about public and private based on the school sectors. A public system is about using public funding to deliver to the public, irrespective of the ownership of the delivery agency.
Correspondingly, all schools in receipt of public funding, government and non-government should have both a moral and a contractual imperative of delivery for the public good. This principle should be the basis for new policy settings that are designed to encourage and reward schools in delivering quality education to an entire community and for all students, and for schools to work in partnership across the sectors. The most obvious focus for this would be a sub-region or municipality, as is the case in several European countries.
Second, there is a need to lessen the incentives for schools to engage in selective behaviours. In a market environment this cannot be achieved through regulation. Schools need to be rewarded for taking on the biggest challenges. This requires recognition of educational need, which provided the basis of the original Karmel report, which, sadly, has largely disappeared from education policy.

Use your brain

A cannibal entered the meat market to buy something nice for dinner. The owner greeted him and told him to look around. The cannibal began to inspect the meat case and noticed the market specialized in brain.
Upon further inspection he noticed a marked disparity between the costs of brain meats. A carpenter's brain sells for $1.50 per pound. A plumber's brain sells for $2.25 per pound. He noticed with alarm that a politician's brain sells for $375.00 a pound. With not a little curiosity he asked the owner why the huge difference in price between the similar meats.
The owner responded with a deadpan look on his face, "Do you realize how many politicians it takes to get a pound of brains?"

XY GS

Once again the GS Rally Pack was available on the XY model. In addition to being available on the Falcon 500, Futura and Fairmont sedans, it was also now an option on the Falcon 500 and Fairmont wagon also.

The actual GS options remained the same including the GT dash featuring speedometer, tachometer, odometer, oil pressure, water temperature and fuel gauges, but some other items crept onto the general option list, most notably a sunroof and a stereo radio/tape player. For performance enthusiasts, the most important option was now a 250hp two barrel carburettor equipped Cleveland version of the 351ci V8. It may not have rivalled the 290hp GT, but it really wasn’t too far off now.



This is a lovely XY GS in Onyx Black showing the GS stripe terminating in the GS badge and the chromed XR/XT GT lookalike wheel covers





Here are close ups of the stylised GS badge and of the wheel cover.

Quotable quotes

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery” H.G. Wells

Thanks, Mum!

A young man was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on. Finally he went to the checkout line, but she got in front of him. "Pardon me," she said, "I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable. It's just that you look just like my son, who just died recently."
"I'm very sorry," replied the young man, "is there anything I can do for you?"
"Yes," she said, "As I'm leaving, can you say 'Good bye, Mother'? It would make me feel so much better."
"Sure," answered the young man.
As the old woman was leaving, he called out, "Goodbye, Mother!" As he stepped up to the checkout counter, he saw that his total was $127.50. "How can that be?" He asked, "I only purchased a few things!"
"Your mother said that you would pay for her," said the clerk.

XW GS

Available on the Falcon 500, Futura and Fairmont sedan, the GS added the following features; GS Rally stripes that ran from the front indicators to the middle of the rear wing and ended with the GS insignia and full wheel covers that were the same as the stainless steel wheel covers used on the XR and XT GT models. Inside, a three spoke, deep dished wooden rimmed steering wheel with rim squeeze horn and full dash instrumentation were the same as on the GT model.

From there the buyer could then run riot through the normal options list adding; bucket seats and sports console with four speed or T-Bar automatic, a 302ci 220hp V8, power disk brakes, air conditioning, tinted windscreen, vinyl roof; anything, in fact, that was available in the catalogue. Ford advertised the GS as - ‘Make up your own Grand Sport’ - and, while the car did not have the appeal of the GT, it did offer the cost conscious a distinctive alternative.