Multimedia message

My dad just really pissed me off. We were talking about teaching certification, which led to a discussion of the school I'm at for field. I told him my social studies teacher has five classes, all seventh grade. I told him this because he questioned why one teacher can't teach two subjects at the middle school level. He's thinking in terms of efficiency. I told thin that one of the classes has only seven students in it, and he said that was a waste of money. I didn't really understand why, as if he weren't teaching those students he'd just have an extra planning period, and get paid the same amount. I told him as such and he said that if could be teaching another class with 40 or 50 students in it. I was still pondering how that would solve anything or save any money when he said, 'That's the problem with these academic types. We need to put the business people in charge of education.' I couldn't help but think of the dead horse book. Yes, let's put businesspeople in charge of education and farmers in charge of the automotive industry and playwrights in charge of legislation. Wouldn't that make things better? 40 to 50 in a classroom indeed... I was about to ask him how many degrees he had in Education but I don't have any more than he does, so I kept my mouth shut. We got in a debate about fuel the other night, and while I held my own, I'm not a huge fan of debate. I'm sure he was proud of my critical thinking skills though. I'm rather proud of them myself.