The Geeky Brit

There are reports that some teachers in Santa Barbara are being given a pay rise of 9% to be spread over 3 years, at the cost of increasing the class sizes that they teach.

This is a hard one for me to swallow – I do not believe we should make our children’s education suffer just to provide teachers with a pay raise. Now before teachers bombard me with angry comments let me say this. Yes, teaching is an underpaid occupation, and you should be better compensated – but for two reasons. 1. Higher salaries would attract more teachers from relevant industries and 2. With higher salaries, comes higher standards for hiring teaching staff – and a better overall standard for our education system.

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Something I have never quite understood about the American way of life is the way we handle our taxes. I remember before I emigrated here, I saw a episode of the Simpons when Homer was late in filing his tax return. The hilarious antics portrayed by that american icon while he proceeded to attempt to file his taxes on time had me rolling in laughter (as is usually the case with Homer). What I didn’t realize was this was actually what happens to many americans every year!

Just after I moved here I noticed so many people using the phrase “thats a write off”. I was at first puzzled as to what they meant, and could not fathom the complexity of a tax code that had introduced such accountant vocabulary into everyday life. It was not until my first Tax Return did I truly appreciate the magnitude of the mess that constitutes the United States Tax Code. I was, and continue to be, amazed by the many avenues and methods people use to avoid paying money to Uncle Sam.

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I know some people love watching the Academy awards, but I find them tedious at best. My lovely wife, of course, loves watching them, and so once a year I bid fairwell to conversation with her for several hours. I do admit to getting interested in the “big” winners and go into the family room to see those, but honestly who cares about the “Award for best Sandwich maker in a low budget movie”?

Please don’t get me wrong I like to see who is recognized (and this year some fellow Brits could do very well), but I get to do this on monday morning by looking at a newspaper or other news source….