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Sunday, August 01, 2010

That damned Vacation

What's Mallard raving about today

The same things, as always.

But I am on vacation, and have no intention of reading Mallard Fillmore.

Have fun in the comments!

14 comments:

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

In today's strip, Mallard admits to being mediocre. Does this mean we've almost reached a breakthrough in which he finally concedes that he's a worthless, drunken hack? We can only hope.

Tog said...

How come we don't mention the kid's name anymore, Batshit?

Ah, the standard (read: mediocre) "pulbic skule iz teh SUXX!!1" strip, always a classic. And let me guess: the solution is private school vouchers, slashing public school budgets, Texas texts, and getting rid of teachers' unions and driving out the hippies so it can all be more like Beck U.

Oh, and forcing everyone to rattle off the Pledge, WITH "under God," that we might weed out the heathens and independent thinkers and other terrorists.

It's a beautiful dream if you're Republican.

Ducky is Right said...

You'd be hard pressed to find someone more qualified to discuss mediocrity them Ducky.

So, ah, are Asians usually grey? I live in CO now, so it's been a while since I've seen anyone who isn't white or Latin, but I don't recall them being greyish in skin tone.

Gee, Mallard, you wouldn't be encouraging a snotty, elitist attitude there, would ya? Cause you might want to check your talking points regarding being too smart.

exanonymous said...

... which is all I, Mallard Fillmore watch.

But mediocrity is better than total ignorance, if you take the whole "public schools suck" at face value. Some public schools are horrible, but at least they teach some basics to kids who otherwise would have nothing. The free market is not in favor of education for the working class as it is a cost for an unnecessary skill for you unskilled labor force to perform their job within the company.

CasualBrowser said...

The private-schools-are-inherently-better-than-public,-just-look-at-the-numbers does show a much higher graduation rates and percentages of student excellence. What they don't show is that the most of the parents of private school students sent thier kids there because they're INTERESTED AND INVOLVED IN THE CHILD'S EDUCATION. They don't have throngs of indifferent parents who just want the rugrats out of the house. Having someone at home who pushes you to do learn and do well makes a HUGE difference in a child's progess in education. Force the children of uncaring parants, who never even read to thier kids, into private schools, and the comparisons will look more alike.


Also, accusing Mallard of being mediocre is high praise indeed. Are y'all easing up on Tinsley?

CasualBrowser said...

Sorry about the mixed-up grammar above. I pick early-rising as my excuse....

Bill the Splut said...

I thought Grey Aliens had bigger eyes. Maybe even the colorist hates this strip, and is doing his best to sabotage it.

Today it's "I hate our mediocre schools!" and "TV is bad!" So within the week we'll see a strip about about "I hate educated people!" and "There's nothin' good on, and I know because I been watchin' for 8 hours!"

WV: quallyma; what truthiness is to truth, quallyma is to quality. "Dullard Failmore is a real quallyma strip."

Schroduck said...

I see Mallard doesn't know the difference between French and Latin. Yes, he's definitely justified in being smug in his intellectual superiority over a 10 year old.

CW in LA said...

To paraphrase F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus, Mallard and the Tinsh aspire to mediocrity. These losers aren't good enough for Salieri to be their patron saint.

rewinn said...

Neither "International" nor "baccalaureate" are Latin words, the latter is an English word coming fairly directly from Mediveal Latin, the former was invented in the 18th century.

While there's little showing that charter schools are necessarily better than private schools, there's plenty of evidence that bad schools (public or private) can be improved by paying attention to students

Kaitlyn said...

My schools were (and are) broke.

But I still had good teachers who challenged me, who pushed me.

I had lazy teachers. I had one who failed me, not because I didn't do the work, but because I didn't go to class... because I was having surgery.

Same with college.

And I'm sure it's the same at private schools - some are burnt out (those "caring parents" can have lots of demands "I'm paying your salary!").

I also was lucky to have both parents interested in my education - dad took me to classes at the university in the summer (not college level, but not 4th grade), telling me I could be anything I wanted to be.

My mom's been more on the illness side, making sure I got a good homebound teacher and that I graduated (19!), because if those kids busted for drugs could walk, so could I. (She's also helped in college, when I was sent in circles about getting the temperature in the room below 80 F - she got the right number, it was done that day.)

I know I was lucky (well when it comes to school). I could have had parents with no time, who didn't care.

Like they say - he was born on 3rd base and thought he hit a triple.

Insulting teachers and public schools really pisses me off, especially with those bloody useless state tests for NCLB. *rants for hours, no one listens*

Kaitlyn said...

Oh, my WV was "ingra," as in "what a bunch of ingrates."

Rootbeer said...

I thought Li'l Rush was the hard-working son of hard-working legal immigrants from That Oriental Country What We Liberated From Communism, and therefore loves hard work and loathes mediocrity as much as any other right-wing straw-man caricature?

Odd to see this comic strip speaking so highly of an educational program that promotes "intercultural understanding and respect" (IB Mission Statement) and has prominent relationships with (gag) Europe and (barf) the United Nations.

Michael Foley said...

Mallard Fillmore is promoting elite education and discouraging TV watching? And wearing a normal shirt in lieu of a polka dotted sweater? Is this Mallard's liberal brother or something?

I like how Rush is saying "mediocrity" in the same panel where he is drawn holding a lumpy 2-D basketball as if it were a frisbee.