Jeff Crump
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On the article Should Stand-Alone Honors Nights Be Scrapped?
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On the article Dr. Stephen Zrike Chosen as Wakefield School Superintendent
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On the article The Parents Yap About Report Cards: Do the standards-based report cards make the grade?
Jeff Crump
4:13 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
ReplyThe new report cards at the elementary level are worse than useless -- they actually can make you believe your student is learning (oh, sorry, "progressing") when in fact they come into the Galvin woefully unprepared. And you're blindsided by that.
Oh, it's great at making sure no one's feelings are hurt. You just can't use it to figure out if your kid is actually learning anything. Sure, we talk with the teachers all the time. But nothing motivates better than when the kid sees it in writing.
I don't give a damn if my kid is "progressing to a standard". Rather, I need to know *where* he is relative to that standard. You know, so I can push him harder in areas where he might need work. Seems to me that old-fashioned grades worked pretty well for this purpose.
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On the article Burbine Home Was Easy Walk To Nearby Playground
Jeff Crump
7:52 am on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Reply"A few hundred feet further away from Nasella Playground, there is also what appears to be a Little League field on the map." Come on, man, you're the Wakefield reporter... shouldn't you be able to know this first hand?
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On the article Tell Us: Does The Town Meeting Still Work?
Jeff Crump
1:37 pm on Friday, November 16, 2012
ReplyTown meeting is fine for a small town, but Wakefield isn't small anymore. With 25K people in town, the meetings are either a) perfunctory or b) packed by one side of an issue. It's a waste of time, really. Reading's model is great.
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On the article LETTER: Let Me Warn You
Jeff Crump
11:50 am on Thursday, October 11, 2012
ReplyWhen you're out of ideas, and can't justify your own performance, just say the other guys lie. Yeah, that's the ticket!
Oh well. Our welfare state is working so well there's no need to try anything different. Nevermind that the poverty rate has gone up consistently since LBJ. Silly me!
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On the article Letter: Why I'm Voting for Obama
Jeff Crump
12:46 pm on Thursday, March 1, 2012
ReplyOh, I forgot. For a Democrat, "dissent is the highest form of patriotism". For Republicans, dissent is disrespectful and racist. My bad.
Where in my comments was I slandering the president? Surely you can can understand that one can have respect for the office and disdain for its occupant.
Oh, and by the way, John didn't refute my point that Bush actually negotiated the end of the Iraq war. Obama implemented it. Why is this difficult to understand?
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On the article Letter: Why I'm Voting for Obama
Jeff Crump
2:15 pm on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
ReplyIf I may address your points in order...
1. Recent polls show that 75 percent of Americans favor some degree of repeal of Obama's takeover of the healthcare industry; 53 percent now favor complete repeal. But hopefully we won't need to go that far: the Supreme Court will be hearing arguments on its unconstitutionality in March.
2. The current hiring rate is enough only to counteract, statistically, the number of people dropping out of the labor market; at the current rate, it will take 25 years to make up for the job losses during the recession. Businesses aren't hiring because they are scared of the uncertain regulatory climate. There's no point in investing when the president says they'll be punished for succeeding.
3. You can refinance your mortgage not because of anything Obama did, but because of the continuing weakness in the housing market. Giving him credit for that is like...
4. .. giving him credit ending the Iraq War. You might recall President Bush negotiated the Status-of-Forces agreement that actually ended the war. Obama just happens to be president when the pre-arranged deal actually was implemented. We have so much respect around the world now that we're negotiating with the Taliban, and the Iranians are happily building nuclear weapons. God help us if they didn't respect us!
The only thing Obama has earned is a bus ticket out of town. That is, if we can afford the gas....
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On the article Wakefield's 'Just Desserts' Headed to Reading
Jeff Crump
6:50 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Maura, exactly. No one should wonder why business choose to expand or locate in Reading rather than in Wakefield. Who would volunteer to pay twice as much in taxes if they can avoid it?
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On the article Wakefield's 'Just Desserts' Headed to Reading
Jeff Crump
3:18 pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Reply"Lower overhead costs" -- have you seen the difference in business taxes between Reading and Wakefield?
Jeff Crump
9:12 am on Saturday, March 23, 2013
God forbid the kids that don't receive honors be motivated to work harder in order to achieve them.