Batter Up!

Today is opening day for the 2009 major league baseball season, and my Cubs are in Houston for a game tonight. The White Sox have already postponed their opening day game with Kansas City until tomorrow; US Cellular field being covered in a blanket of snow.
In my last post I mentioned my high school Physics teacher who I saw for the first time in 25 years a few weekends ago. The good sister is, and always was, a diehard Cub fan. In the spring, when the season was just beginning, class would stop every afternoon at 1:20 if the Cubs were playing. We would be given a work sheet and watch the game in her classroom. She had a 10 inch black and white TV, and if the game was away we listened on the radio. This was not wasted time, as she would plan our work around the baseball schedule. Teaching took place when there was no game, or the Cubs were out of town and playing at night; seat work was planned for game day. The year I had Physics was just after the Cubs collapse of 1969. Even though they had disappointed her so, she would still watch every day.
I was a Cub fan myself long before I took Physics. When I was very young, my mother would watch the Cubs on TV while she did the ironing. When she was a young woman during WWII, my mother worked in downtown Chicago. Occasionally, her boss would take all the office girls to a Cubs game as a moral boost and she became a Cubs fan as a result. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Cubs have ruined every one of my summers for the last 50 years. I have given up any hope of seeing them in a World Series before I die.
This year’s team is touted as a powerhouse who is sure to win the division and contend for the title. What a pile of crap! The only thing the 2009 Cubs are sure to do is ruin another summer for me. They are as soft as the over-ripe tomatoes will be in my garden in August. I still watch, but not as much as I used to. My friend in the Theology Department is a Cubs fan as well. We both agree that we will not ever get excited about another Cubs season again until they are playing in the 4th game of the World Series. The last two years she watched every minute of the playoffs. Mercifully, the pain was brief. I on the other hand, I refused to waste my time watching them lose and found more rewarding ways to spend my time.

April is the Cruelest Month

When I look outside my office window on this 5th of April, I am reminded of the Animal Planet program I watched last month about the polar bear. Apparently, according to the “global warming” crowd, the habitat of the polar bear is being devastated by warming in the arctic. Soon there will be no year-round ice in the arctic; then what will the poor polar bear do? I think they will migrate here.
Last weekend my wife and I went with a group of teachers and alumni from my school to the sister’s mother-house. The trip had been planned for months as a 50th anniversary activity and was attended by about 25 people. My main reason for going was to see my high school physics teacher who is retired and living at the mother-house. I haven’t seen her since she was transferred to another school almost 25 years ago. I can’t express how happy I am to find that she is well at 92 years old. She was the one who inspired me to take up science in college and eventually become a teacher. She is still the best teacher I ever had and sharp as ever; looking like she could go into the classroom again. She could teach the hell out of physics.
The weather that weekend was frigid for this time of the year. The first day was characterized by a steady, cold rain that interfered with every activity we had planned. On the morning of the second day we woke to a snow storm. A week later the snow storm outside my office window is raging on. The Sox have already canceled their home opener tomorrow because of the weather. The Animal Planet program told us that polar bears were migrating further south every year to find food. When they finally get here they will feel right at home.
On a sad note, the nun who is in charge of the tuition office at our school had a stroke last week. She is a kind soul who treated parents and students with respect. It is commonly believed by the faculty that the stressful circus that revolved around our “tuition problems” of last month contributed to the onset of her health issues.
Enrollment for next year seems to be leveling out about where most of us thought it would be. About 100 present students have not yet registered for next year (according to guidance) and a little over 400 of the 500 incoming freshmen have paid their registration fee and chosen classes for next year. Baring any new economic disaster, we should be within 200 students of our head-count this year; an acceptable enrollment level considering the troubled economy. The really good news is that, if we lose any students, it will be because of the economy and not because of dissatisfaction with our product.
We were notified this week that there will be no reductions in staff next year, except through attrition, and there will be a 3% pay raise. The pay raise is smaller than we usually receive, but in this economy everyone is grateful to have a stable job to look forward to.

Underachieving by Design

The initial day of registration for the class of 2012 was a week ago, and the 501 8th graders we accepted were invited to school so they could register for classes next year. According to the administration, the turnout was better than expected, considering the economic situation most families presently find themselves in.

I wrote about freshmen registration last year ( Freshmen Registration Day, March 9th, 2008) and this year was very similar. I spoke that day with about 15 families who thought that their child’s entrance exam scores were not consistent with their success in grade school. Of these, I moved 3 students up in placement on the basis of information the parents provided (grade school report cards, recommendation letters from teachers, etc.). I felt comfortable that these students could handle the higher level work based on the information I saw. Another seven or eight I talked into starting out in the lower level we recommended, at least until we had a chance to evaluate their work early next year. Three were placed on a list for our Honors Biology teacher to evaluate, not feeling that I could make a decision one way or the other myself. She will call their grade school, speak to the parents, and make a decision based on her gut feeling. I suspect that, eventually, all three will be moved up.

All my discussions with parents were civil and productive, except for one mother. Her son has scored terribly on the entrance exam, his composite score below the 25th percentile (6th percentile in math and verbal ability). He was accepted conditionally, placed in all lower level classes, and required to attend a summer remedial program in both math and reading. She was beside herself with anger yelling at me (as if I had anything to do with her son’s poor score). “How could this be valid?” she argued, “He has straight A’s in grade school!” “How many other students with straight A’s are required to be in a remedial summer class?” she shrieked. I confessed I did not know, even though every student I spoke to that day had a grade school report card with straight A’s. I was afraid if I told her that she would reach across the table and attempt to strangle me on the spot.

I spoke to four students from the same school, all below average on the exam, who all argued that they should be moved up into Honors Biology because their science teacher (same woman for all) said they were the best science student in the school. This is why we don’t place students based on grade school report cards and teacher recommendations only.

She demanded that I place him in honors biology, which I refused to do. I argued that in the summer session the teachers would re-evaluate him and recommend a new placement if appropriate. She was not satisfied, threatening to go over my head to the principal if necessary.

I related this story to my friend in the Math Department who I know teaches the summer remedial program. He informed me that either his school has inappropriately low expectations for an “A” or the boy purposefully tried to fail the exam. He related to me that every summer they encounter students who were conditionally accepted who confess that they tried to fail the exam. They wanted to go to the public school with their friends, but their parents insist on sending them to us, so they tried to get rejected. They leave whole blocks of questions unanswered, or purposely enter answers randomly in an attempt to score so low they will be rejected. The more I think about it, the more I think this is the case with this boy. His mother fought for him to be placed in Honors, and he just sat there and said nothing. He must have been hoping that I would refuse to move him up; his mother intimating that if I didn’t, she would send him to the public school that already said he could be in their honors program.

On the other hand, he might be a very bright student who just had a bad day.

Hard Times

In January we tested 612 prospective students for our incoming freshmen class. The administration was very worried that the current recession would significantly reduce the number of applicants, but we held our own, attracting only a few percent less than last year. Other schools in the archdiocese were not as blessed. Of the students who took the exam, 501 scored high enough to be admitted and were sent letters of acceptance. The hard economic times we face will surely cause a drop in enrollment, but times are tough everywhere and we are still holding our own so to speak. Several other local private schools are in much worse shape; being on the brink of closing even before our economic crisis.

An unknown number of our current students will probably have to drop out because of financial problems, the worst case predictions say that we could lose 200-300 of our 1500+ enrollment. Many parents will make significant sacrifices in other areas to keep their children here; those students we lose will leave reluctantly, wishing they could stay.
It is everyone’s hope that when the economy recovers, so will our enrollment. A private education of the quality we offer is an investment in a child’s future, not just a luxury for the affluent.

The administration had already decided not to replace any teachers/staff that decided to leave at the end of the year, preferring to cut their positions and redistribute their students/duties. Unfortunately, the employment consultation forms that everyone filled out in January indicated that no one is planning on leaving. There will be very little turnover in teaching positions through the area, teachers at most schools trying to hold on to the positions they have for now. Our teaching contract defines a full-time teacher as someone with five classes, and a supervision period. Many of the staff teach a sixth class for extra money, but the principal has already decided to stop this for the time being so as few people as possible have to be let go.

Tomorrow is the beginning of 4th quarter and some parents have decided to transfer their kids now, being unable to cover the tuition costs for the rest of the year. I am losing one boy whom I wrote about last month. He is failing all of his classes and the parents have decided to cut their loses and save the $2000 still due for the rest of the year. He will be going to his local public school. I spoke to him on his last day (Friday) and he told me about the new school he will be attending. They wear a uniform because of gang problems, carry their books around in a “clear” back-pac so all its contents are visible, and have to go through a metal detector each day. I told him I was sorry to see him go and reminded him that his parents would have kept him here if he had only studied—he is very bright and capable of straight A’s if he worked. He just shrugged, indicating that he really didn’t care one way or the other, even commenting that he may be back next year if he doesn’t like it. I spoke with his guidance counselor last week when I heard about the transfer. She has been working with him all year, trying to get him motivated, but found nothing that worked. Being a minority student, we could have gotten him a full ride to college if he only put out the effort. He is easily the brightest student in my 5th period class. I am hoping that he sees the error of his ways and turns into the student he can be.