Flashy Vacuum Cleaners

With most people, a vacuum cleaner isn't really an inspiring machine.  If you don't care about how it works, then you probably don't want to vacuum to start with.  At the same time, no one wants to live in a pig sty or dirty home even.

These days however, things have began to change for the better, and people's attitudes are changing as well.  Vacuum cleaners are becoming interesting and it's all thanks to James Dyson, the inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner.

All thanks to Dyson, vacuum cleaners have taken on a personality and life of their own.  These very same tactics are even employed by the likes of Apple to successfully ploy their iMacs and iPods to the masses have now been used with tremendous results with vacuum cleaners.

Now, let's take a look at the decision that faces you when buying a flashy vacuum cleaner.  First of all, you have the choice between the upright or canister versions.  The upright style of vacuum cleaners will require you to use them in the traditional push and pull fashion, although the latest vacuum from Tyson, the DC15, has even turned this technology on its head with "Ball Technology" that will let you glide around your home with the greatest of ease - in any direction you please.

Canister vacuum cleaners on the other hand come with a hose attachment for great control and

flexibility, as you can quickly and easily get to all of the hard to reach places.  There isn't really a lot of difference between the two, and it's mainly down to your personal preference, even though the upright vacuum is best suited to larger carpets.

You should also consider the power of the motor and efficiency of the filtration system as well. Those that suffer from allergies will want to pay close attention to the filtration.  Dyson for one has been very successful by marketing the benefits of its patented "Cyclone" technology,

which doesn't use a bag nor does it ever get clogged up.

If you feeling really daring and adventurous and want to stay ahead of the curve, you could go for one of the very popular robotic vacuum cleaners such as the ZA01 from Electrolux or the cheaper iRobot from Roomba.  While you amuse yourself or do other things, the robot will move around your home on it's own will, vacuuming your entire home until it is spotless.  The robot even has the technology and intelligence to return to the base when it is running low on battery power and recharge itself.

If you want to be different and unique, a flashy vacuum cleaner is the way to go.  There are many different models and types to choose from, from cheap vacuums to those that cost hundreds of dollars.  All you have to do is meet your creative side halfway and let the fun begin!

Who Holds the Schools Accountable?

Perhaps the biggest difference between public and private school is the system of accountability.  Children know all about being held accountable.  Not long after they leave behind infancy, children learn that virtually everybody is going to hold them accountable for something or another in almost every situation they will be in.  And they become little experts at meeting the expectations of adults, even if it’s just surface fulfillment of the requirements and not a genuine accountability.

But the truth is that all of us are held accountable to fulfill our responsibilities.  Jobs hold employees accountable.  In marriage, the husband and wives hold each other accountable to live up to the marriage vows.  Even businesses are held accountable by customers.  If the business fails to live up to the expectation of the customers, they will go out of business and not make any money any more.

Responsibility and accountability are the core of what makes us tick as people and by extension what makes institutions work the way they are supposed to work to serve the needs of the public.  Accountability means that someone somewhere is going to judge you on your performance.  If you are performing well, you are rewarded.  If you are not performing well, you are punished, corrected or dismissed.  It’s not a hard system to understand and your children understand it in depth.

In school, children are held accountable every day.  Not only do they have to live up to behavior expectations in class, they must participate in lessons, be part of lesson related activities and do homework and take tests and get good grades to be rewarded with a high grade average to take on to the next grade and eventually to college.  

But who holds the schools accountable to do the jobs they are required to do?  This is the fundamental difference between public and private schools.  Private schools are quite simply held accountable by the parents of the children who attend that school.  Now in every private school, there is an internal system and structure to execute accountability on a daily basis in the form of the school administration and the principle.  But ultimately if the school is not living up to the promises it makes to the parents who pay what are often high fees for that education for their children, those parents can pull their kids out and go elsewhere.

So a private school lives under the laws of the marketplace which keeps other businesses working correctly.  They can be fired by parents so it pays for them to listen to parents, to keep parents informed and to make sure that at the end of the semester, the quality of education and the educational experience the kids had was top notch.

Public schools on the other hand are not held accountable by parents.  They are held accountable by the government.  And as we all know from watching how well our politicians behave, the government is pretty awful at holding anybody accountable for anything.  So the public school systems and the schools in your town learn quickly how to “just get by” on satisfying government requirements and those requirements have precious little to do with the educational experience of your child or of your expectations as parents.

Now the public schools will put on a pretty good show that they want the input of parents and that they want to be accountable to parents.  That is because you as a parent have two very potent weapons at your disposal that can hurt the school if they don’t convince you that they are living up to expectations.  You can vote and use politics to make the government live up to its job.  Or you can take your child out of the public schools and take them to a school that will be responsive to your needs and expectations.

One system is bureaucratic and based on government oversight which almost never works.  The other is based on the laws of the marketplace and driven by satisfying consumer need.  That system is the private school system and the consumer is you and your child.  And while the private school route is more expensive, by patronizing the system that works and that will be ultimately accountable to you, you are voting that the public system doesn’t work so maybe someday the government will fix it.  But we aren’t holding our breath for that.

When Fear is a Part of Life at School

You can probably think back on some of your favorite classes when you was growing up and going to school.  And when you think back fondly on that class, how would you describe the atmosphere of the class and the motivation system that was used by the school and by the administration to get you to achieve and excel? The odds are if that class is one you remember as inspirational and one of the favorite times you had in school, the relationship with the teacher was relaxed, creative and affectionate.  And the one emotion that you no doubt never felt in that classroom was fear.

We brought this topic up with that illustration because it is really amazing how often fear is the center of the culture at many schools where the objective is to inspire students to learn.  This is particularly true in public schools.  The culture of public schools very often becomes overwhelmed with the need for order and the strict stipulations for student attendance and tracking put on the school by state regulations.  The outcome is the administration of the school often lives in fear of failing in one of these many state level requirements for fear of losing funding or some other form of punishment.  And that fear is passed along to the students.

Fear is also a culture of a school that is overcrowded.  The simple fact is that even if the teacher of a particular course is creative and loves being with students and filling their minds with the joy of learning, if you overwhelm that teacher with more students than he or she should reasonably have in class, the emphasis of the classroom shifts from learning to keeping order.  And when that change of priority takes place, fear is the primary tool used to maintain order so the information can be presented to the students.  

Sadly, if students are in that room after being intimidated and threatened, even the best of student will close his or her mind to learning.  If you are a parent and you sit in on a class to see how well the craft of teaching is carried out, you come away with the misperception that the class was well run if the students sit quietly staring forward while the teacher lays out bland information for them to adsorb and write down.  If young people sit quietly and do not interact with the teacher, they are doing so out of fear.  And fear is one of the worst teaching tools there is.

Private schools have the opportunity to create a better learning environment for their students because traditionally private schools have a lower teacher to student ratio so interaction is encouraged and fear is not needed to maintain order in the classroom.  But even then to foster an atmosphere of discussion and learning, you must have teachers who are talented at leading group discussions, who write their curriculums to include interaction as a teaching tool and who are not afraid of the students.

Fear goes two ways in a school situation.  If the student body is frightening to ach other, very often they are also frightening to the teachers.  This is the setting where gangs develop in school cultures or where the culture of student life deteriorates to where troubled students can impose fear on others.  In this day and age of school shootings and other violence related campus outbreaks, if the school allows that kind of culture to grow up, it is very difficult to get it under control.  And just as fear from the top down destroys the love of learning, fear from the student body up destroys a teachers ability to communicate his or her love of the subject matter openly and leads to dull and uninteresting classrooms which only makes matters worse.

As with controlling fear due to overcrowding, private schools also have the edge in controlling fear coming from the student body.  Private schools are not required to keep any students that they don’t feel fit the culture of the school.  Each and every parent and student sign contracts agreeing not to become disruptive in action, dress or attitude and what is disruptive is left to the school to determine.  So private schools can remove students who are a threat and with their removal, the fear of harm goes as well.