Opinion

It’s fair to say that these have been confusing and even traumatic times for U.S. public servants. They’ve been attacked as lazy and as ripoff artists — by a White House official. They’ve received a steady stream of “buyout” offers whose legality was initially questioned by the courts. They’ve watched as entire federal agencies — most notably the people responsible for providing life-saving foreign aid and the people charged with protecting American financial consumers — have been shut down or ordered to stop working. And, of course, the richest private citizen in the world has been busy installing his private-citizen colleagues in key command-and-control positions in the U.S. government.

It is essential to highlight the impact of home life on the learning of our students. Students learn continuously, not just at school. Here is a breakdown of a student’s time spent at home versus school by John H. Wherry from his article “The Influence of Home on School Success.” Kids sleep about eight hours a day,leaving 16waking hours. Over 18 years, that is approximately 105,120 waking hours. In contrast, a child spends about 1,080 hours in school each year for 13 years (K-12 grade) totaling 14,040 school hours. This means only 13.36% of their waking hours are spent in school, while 86.64% is at home.

Ever since Donald Trump was sworn in as president, it’s felt as though every day has brought a fresh assertion of presidential power — often at Congress’s expense. It began on the first day with a couple dozen executive orders, and has continued apace with declarations affecting the federal bureaucracy, inspectors general, crucial public health communications, federal grants and loans, and more.

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“The only measure that he knows is desire — desire for power.” — Gandalf I’ve been thinking a lot about power lately. I suppose all men think about power — the definition of power, the relative sense of power, the powerless and, of course, absolute power.