... In which I get all philosophical up on you:
Is education a
privilege, or a
right?
A corollary...
If education
were a right (and I say this
strictly for the sake of argument), is it actually possible to provide a
quality education when an inherent property of that educaton is that everyone is entitled to it?
And I don't necessarily mean that in the sense that letting the unwashed masses study alongside the... er... washed masses somehow sullies the product, but rather that the machine that implements that which is mandatory in this reality somehow simultaneously strips the product of its quality.
And don't even try to enter in the discussion unless you've read
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and actually know what I'm trying to get at when I say "quality."
There, that oughta keep somebody busy for awhile.
So this morning I backpedaled out of this argument with my boss...
I had been crunching state testing numbers for our high school end-of-course tests, and had discovered that, at our technology magnet, the Hispanic subgroup had done better than ALL of the other subgroups (Asian kids, White kids, rich kids included), and everyone had done stunningly well.
I was sharing my excitement about this with my boss, and she said, "Yes, well..." then explained that this particular school had a policy of turning down the applications of anyone who hadn't scored on grade level, thus making it a clinch that nearly 100% would continue to be on grade level. Which, of course, they were.
Of course, as a department, we tend to frown on exclusionary practices, especially since LEP kids often are not well represented by their test scores, but part of me was a little chafed by this.
My boss explains that she doesn't want to see any kid miss the chance to be part of an excellent program because of exclusionary practices.
My stance is that a) when are kids who do well gonna get
rewarded for doing well? Singled out? Allowed to go to the good school? And b) how long will the program stay good after they let all the boneheads in?
I didn't actually go so far as to
share these thoughts with my boss, who's had just about enough of my shit for this month, but the question remains. All three of you who read, feel free to discuss...
Good Christly Joe, it must be June.
Nobody on the planet, I don't think, except maybe Alaskan garbagemen (my uncle John did that) or civic septic tank de-sludgers (Grandpa did that) hates, hates, HATES their job more than a teacher in June.
The kids gave up two months ago. They're not even on their game when they're trying to piss you off. The air doesn't work. Your feet have gone all puffy. There's no more inspiring, uplifting, bringing knowledge to the masses. Hell, the kids went home on Friday; it's all over 'cept for the paperwork.
In my school district you can compound all of that with the fact that everybody already got their last paycheck a week and a half ago, even though Wednesday's their last day. And today is Kardex day.
I don't know if other school districts disregard their own faculty so severely as to inflict Kardex day on them, but ours sure does. The Kardex is some ridiculous piece of pasteboard that goes in the student's permanent record, with the year's information, such as attendance, report card grades (with corrections! in red ink! initialled by the teacher! if you can find them!), and end-of-course test scores, and every teacher with a homeroom has to complete one for every kid on their roster, and teachers without homerooms get to help, and it's the one day of the year when the teaching faculty gets to interact very, very closely with the registrar and the attendance secretary and it. is. never. pretty.
I was at Nearby High unpacking
111,693 dollar's worth of stuff for the SIFE center, which is a gas unto itself and just so fucking smug in the knowledge that not only am I getting paid again at the end of the month, but I never have to do another Kardex again.
I
knew moving to Central Office had perks.
I lost my work ID months ago, and, while I'm totally down with the philosophy that we should all display our badges for the safety of the children, the hard, cold reality is, I so can't be bothered to spend a morning in line at the security department to get a new one.
Anyhow, lack of an ID badge has resulted in a lot of skulking on my part, as I have to visit 17 different high schools and very few front-office secretaries know me on sight (and my fellow educators know what type of personality tends to man the desk in the front office).
So I was trying to rapidly skulk through a front office today to go say hi to a pal in the counseling department, when the secretary pulled me up short. I apologized and explained who I was and where my badge wasn't.
She was cool about it, "I just saw you out the corner of my eye and I thought you were a student."
I laughed, "Oh, well
that's okay, you can mistake me for a student all day long, I don't mind!"
She eyed me over the top of her glasses, "Honey, have you
seen some of our students?
Nuts.
Happy Teacher Appreciation Month! (Late.)
Most edumacator types have been enjoying a designated Teacher Appreciation week during May, and so I'm a little behind on this. I did not benefit directly, myself, other than recieving three copies of a form letter from the superintendent of my district, which was more annoying than personally moving, what with all the extra paper to throw away.
Anyhow, folks have asked me more than once through these blogs what the ideal Teacher Appreciation gift is, and I have always answered "Barnes and Noble gift cards are good," and they are, but it's a boring and uncreative answer.
Well, my girl Anna (who made it to the top 10 finalists for Teacher of the Year in the second largest district in the state, gooooooo, Anna!) had a much more interesting Teacher Appreciation Week.
This year she has a class of strong personalities, as she charitably describes it, and they got a little out of hand while she was attending the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon and a sub watched her class.
Upon returning and discovering the poor behavior of her disciples, Anna promptly read them the Riot Act, then made them write letters explaining themselves, which further had to be signed by their parents.
Every letter came back the next day, signed. And Anna got some excellent gifts, including:
- a magazine organizer decoupaged with photos of her students and quotes from them about her
- a prayer
- tequila
Now all three of those are
damn good gifts.
"English 10 --
Your paper, project and presentation will be due -- 100% finished,
Jose N., on Wed. Jun 7 at 7:15 a.m.
NO EXCUSES other than death."
This article, via
Drudge, tells of
a teacher at a Latino charter school making racist comments about students of Mexican extraction. Can a teacher really be that stupid? Or, can seventh graders really be such sophisticated spin artists?
Honest to toast pointlets, if you believe any school-related article coming down the pike (you may have noted another of today's Drudge headlines, regarding an assistant principal asking teenage girls about sexual acts) folks in the education industry are about as dumb as a box of rocks.
Personal experience dictates, however, that students know the power of the "race card," and aren't remotely afraid to lay it down, if they think it will get a desired reaction (or distraction).
Also, I could've sworn Kristyn Hartman reported for our local Fox affiliate. When did she defect to Chi-town?
