FoxTrot by Bill Amend for September 06, 2009

Set the bar low enough, and everyone is a good student.

Set the bar low enough and short people don’t have as far to climb up for a drink.

Set the bar low enough and we get the Senators and Congressmen we have today, to say nothing of the CEOs of major corporations and the leaders of the local gang bangers.

So … this why you set a personal bar not low or high, but to a level you expect you can reach without disappointment. Peter, at least you took the home … LOL.

Set the bar low enough and nobody is suprised when you exceed expectations.

Set the bar low enough and I’ll set up my own bar and dare everybody else to leap over it with me.

First day of school; and the memories are still on summer (not reading lists…) A good reason for the introduction to year round school!

Set the bar low enough, and some people will dig a ditch underneath it.

Funny comments, one and all!

Set the bar low enough, and I’ll try to set a record for how high over the bar I can jump.

The curse of being a perfectionist.

I never got a Summer Reading list at my school, though I read a lot without one.

regarding the colour of the book jacket, amazingly there are LOTS of versions see: http://www.redbadgeofcourage.org/cover-art.html

so red, blue, purple, turquoise and white can all be valid answers…

no wonder he is a top student

Comic strips ARE my summer reading list.

Set the bar low enough, and suddenly AP Lit becomes an easy class!

No one even watched the movie?

there was a movie?

I wonder what Jason’s reaction to no longer being the only top student in the family will be.

Set the barre low enough & you got yourself a challenging Limbo Contest.

Let he who is without sin set the first bar.

I wonder how many of us have actually read “The Red Badge of Courage”. It’s a tough book to read. Crane’s descriptions go on for days. Descriptions of the light on the leaves in the trees, for gosh sakes. Pages and pages of Henry Fleming’s introspections. Henry is a good kid but, lord, the kid can get to whining! I doubt many adults would enjoy reading it. Much less any student who has never really before been challenged in school.

Even the movies can be hard to get through. I like the Audie Murphy version, directed by John Huston. Even with all the historical Hollywood inaccuracies it follows the book pretty well. And even though it’s in black & white my students still enjoyed it. High praise indeed. But the book is just too much for them. Let’s not lower the bar, let’s raise the kids.

For those of you with the time here is the book. Good luck. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/73

Enjoy! D

C’MON! It’s not that too hard a read. Only about 200 pages as I recall. Plus, there was great Classics Illustrated comic book version when I was in High School. Wrote an “A” book report using it.

Set the bar low enough and even the fat guy can jump it.

Yes, yyyguy - Audie Murphy starred in it, and much was filmed in Bidwell Park in Chico, California, where the outdoor scenes of Errol Flynn’s “Robin Hood” were also filmed. Another in my “classics” collection.

American Public Schools: lowering the bar since 1962.

Ushindi i’m glad to hear you like “Robin Hood” as i also own “The Sea Hawk” and “Captain Blood” along with it. one of my all time favourite comedies is “The Court Jester” starring Danny Kaye and Basil Rathbone, which sends up the swashbuckler type movies to great effect.

Set the bar low enough and you won’t have to worry about falling off the barstool.

They didn’t do summer reading lists at my school either. Although I also did a lot of reading in the summer. What got to me was how many of the books the teachers wanted us to read for school were really depressing! Edgar Allen Poe - depressing and maybe shouldn’t be taught to overly sensitive kids. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - very well written, very depressing. I remember having to read Island of the Blue Dolphins (depressing, although the title’s good) and envying the kids in the “less advanced” group who got to read “The Three Investigators” (which is actually a fun series). Although I kind of liked Shakespeare.

Set the bar low enough and you get “No Child Left Behind”. W wanted all public schools to be as bad as the ones here in Texas.

Well I read the book in 6th grade. Mainly because my aunt gave it to me as a birthday present and my parents made me. It was pretty good actually. I only wish they didn’t make me write two page book reports after every book I read. Course it made it easy for me when I had to turn them in for real.

yyyguy: You have good taste - I have those movies also. Always liked Glynis Johns, “Maid Jean”. She was born in 1923, and as far as I know, still alive.

What about “Scaramouche” (Stewart Granger), or “The Crimson Pirate” (Burt Lancaster)?

All I can say, is I read it about thirty years ago - sorry, about 60 years ago, and remembering really enjoying it and how it told about a lad’s feelings when he was under fire.

When I was a kid I had no books to read for summer. My mom was not interested and at 84 still not interested in books. When school started I went to the school library and had a field day with books. When I started my first job I started buying books. My mom claimed I got my reading part from my dad, no I told her dad would not let me have books either. My dad would not start reading, they both can read my mom does not like to read, after he retired. Since then I have a lot of books. Now gocomics keeps me too busy reading comments. I read for pleasure.

Inever read classics like that. I do recall reading Heinlein around 12 or so. I read Tolkien three or four times and found it hard every single time.

sweet i wish i could be top if the class

set the bar low, and you have…….a low bar………

Set the bar low enough and I can reach my drink from the gutter. “Where the mind goes, the body will follow.”

If you set the bar so low you won’t even see it until you tripped over it.

What bar? It was a lucky guess. Just like the multiple guess tests–you could ace them, or at least pass them if your guess are correct. I’m going to the bar, thank goodness they’re open on Sundays, now.

LOLz….Unfortunately my class is exactly like this one…It’s a shame when you’re trying to excel but then you’re being told to be mediocre.

If you set the bar low enough, this could pass as a joke

That’s probably the first time peter has ever said he was the “top student in the class”

I don’t understand what the bad news would be.

Dang! All my ideas for “set the bar” jokes are taken!