Results tagged “time”

In a circular plot of land in upper Northwest, the U.S. Naval Observatory has acted as America's timekeeper for over 150 years. Most people associate the USNO with the Vice President, but Number One Observatory Circle – a house sitting on the grounds, separate from Navy operations – has only been the VP's official residence since 1974. The real cultural and scientific draw of this institution is its role in using the Sun and stars to create our modern concept of time and navigation.

Since D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee hit the cover of TIME Magazine last week, our “Michelle Rhee” Google alert has been blowing up — there is something about Rhee that gets people’s attention and elicits a response. Take this quote from the TIME story:

"The thing that kills me about education is that it's so touchy-feely," she tells me one afternoon in her office…"People say, 'Well, you know, test scores don't take into account creativity and the love of learning,'" she says… “I'm like, 'You know what? I don't give a crap.' Don't get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job."

People react to that kind of talk, whether in agreement or disgust. And while the TIME story didn’t contain much that we didn’t already know about Rhee, its cover portrait, which we wrote about this weekend, was a case in point for the subjective kinds of responses she garners. Rhee, dressed in black, holding a broom, struck some as an all-too-accurate witch comparison, others as an appropriate illustration of her “sweeping change.”