Saturday, March 21, 2009

The New School Emergency Drill

At Raven Watch the mood is remeniscent of scary times from my childhood.

Back in the 1950's, when I was in grammar school in Chicago and the Cold War was at its freezing point, we routinely had what were called "Air Raid Drills." At precisely 10:30 am every Tuesday, the City of Chicago let loose its loud city-wide air raid sirens, and school children throughout "Chicagoland" were forced to get under their desks for a full minute, to prepare for that dismal day when their desks would certainly protect them from a nuclear attack.

We had drills here in Kentucky schools too, because our parents loved their children and wanted to feel like they were protecting them - even if they knew they weren't - really.

On a signal from the principal, teachers would direct each of us students to a "safe place" under our desks where the boys joked about kissing our asses goodbye.

But what about today? Today's threat may not rise to the level of nuclear winter but the effects of "economic winter" are powerful too. This calls for a school district emergency procedure.

Drills perhaps.

The new drills could require each school district Chief Financial Officer to monitor CNBC during school hours. The CFO should note the number of times cable reporters scream at the president or have their heads handed to them by John Stewart.

When the threat level is HIGH students could receive instruction in practical economic "coping skills that focus on fundamental concepts of economic security, financial basics, deferred gratification, and long-range thinking."

If the economic threat level reaches SEVERE all district principals would initiate the district-wide economic emergency response system, illustrated below.

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