My last post was roughly 18 months ago, and I don’t have a legitimate excuse for the hiatus. In my defense let me say that the last year and a half has been one of the most professionally challenging of my 40 year career. 

Two years ago my outside tutoring business got very busy.  With the enticement of extra income I soon had so many students that I was scheduling appointments until 8 o’clock four evenings a week. All was well and good for the first month or two; then the long hours began to take a toll on my health.  By the end of the 2013 school year I was both mentally and physically exhausted.  As the 2013-2014 school year began I decided that I could handle the extra load of tutoring if I meet my students at a local library instead of going to their homes.  This cut down on my driving time and allowed me to more comfortably fit 3-4 students a night into my schedule four days a week.  By Christmas vacation I realized that the savings in travel time did not make a great enough difference to spare me from weekly exhaustion. .  By the end of the 2014 school year I was in more physical distress than I had been the year before.  It took me almost the entire summer to recover.

In part because of my wife’s insistence, I have cut down my tutoring time to two days a week, about six hours in total.  I have already turned down several new students.  This new arrangement should be better for my mental and physical health.  I will see students on Tuesday and Thursday; getting home early on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I have committed to a health club work-out at least twice a week and, at the recommendation of my doctor, set up an appointment with a cardiologist.  If all goes well I should begin to feel better soon.

Along with my physically challenging second job, the past two years have been stressful and unpleasant at my primary teaching position.  Our former administration had destroyed school morale with a series of sweeping academic changes opposed by a majority of the staff.  This resulted in a large number of “retirements” among the experienced staff as well as several irrational forced departures among those too young to retire.  Some of the firings we so misguided that the school suffered significant damage to academic programs in the building as a result.  When it was announced last spring that the current principal was leaving a wave of hope spread through the school; although it was too late to save those whose jobs had been cut and whose careers had been destroyed.

At this point the new principal is working hard to rebuild staff morale and community.  He has, where necessary, altered academic policies implemented by his predecessor.  While some were adamantly opposed to his hiring, many have come around to realize his effectiveness as a leader.  His predecessor made sure that all contracts were finalized before he took control, leaving him little opportunity to help those who were so unfairly discharged. In time he may even be able to reverse some of the injustices done to former staff.  

Schools and school districts are famous for over-reacting after the fact. Everyone (I hope) is familiar with the shootings that occurred at Sandy Hook elementary school last December. Such a horrific incident would, understandably, provoke strong overreactions from anyone with ties to a school.

In my mind, such was the case in a New Jersey school district about a month later. A 5 year old kindergarten student was detained and questioned by school officials for three hours because she was overheard saying that she was going to shoot her friends and herself with a hello kitty bubble gun. Apparently, the person who “overheard” the conversation reported it to school administration who pulled the child out of classes the next day and questioned her. The girl never actually brought the bubble gun to school, but only talked about it with her friends.

As a result of their investigation, the principal labeled the girls words a “terrorist threat” and suspended her for ten days. According to the article from the hometown newspaper, the police were never contacted or involved. Understandably upset, the girl’s parents hired a lawyer who got the suspension reduced to two days and the infraction reduced to “threatening another student.” She was allowed to return to school after undergoing an independent psychological evaluation. The parents want the incident stricken from the girl’s record along with an apology from the school officials involved—threatening to sue if not satisfied.

The school officials refuse to comment, citing the fact that they are not able to say anything about a student’s discipline publicly. If there is a justification for their action it is not supported by the facts we know. There could possibly have been something that came out in the interview with the girl that legitimately could have justified their action. If the case goes to court, they will probably have to disclose this information. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I will not draw any lasting conclusion until the legal proceedings are conducted. For now—the school acted in an unbelievably stupid way—so stupid in fact, that the administrators involved should be fired for their actions. Unless, of course, there is something more that we are not net privy to.

My biggest problem with the school’s actions is that the police were never notified. If the principal really believed that the girl was a threat to others the fact that she was out of school would not have protected her potential victims at home or in the mall. At the very least, the girl’s home should have been searched for weapons.

In fact, I will go as far as to suggest that if there are facts not in evidence that justify the principal’s actions, she should be fired for not alerting the authorities of the potential danger.

My uncle used to say that when he was a 5th grade teacher he would get enough cologne and aftershave every Christmas to last him a lifetime. When I started teaching it was not unusual to get 20+ gifts at Christmas from my 125 or so students. Now, I receive less than 10 gifts of any kind each holiday season. I’m not complaining; just making an observation about how traditions have changed. When my daughter was in school my wife and I would give each of her teachers a gift certificate, usually for $25, from some local store.

Many of the gifts I have received recently have been homemade; cookies, candy and the like. This year I have already received 2 bags of homemade candy and some chocolate covered pretzels--all delicious. As well, I received a rather nice holiday mug, a bottle of wine, and a gift certificate. The gift certificate was from a young lady who I had taught last year and her sister who I taught two years ago--it was for $100. The wine came from another young lady I taught last year for whom I had written a letter of recommendation.

Semester exams started today. I have two exams to give today--AP Chemistry and my Chemistry B class. The administration released the list of students who are not to take exams because they still owe tuition and I have 2 students (out of 22) in my Chemistry B class who will not be taking the exam on time, while everyone in AP Chemistry is cleared. There is 1 Honors Chemistry student (out of 80) who is on the list, but I don’t see her until Thursday.

I have 6 outside tutoring students I see, four of them on a regular basis. I have two scheduled for tonight and then I am finished with them until after break. Except for one family, my tutoring students usually don’t give me any kind of gift at the holidays. The one family who does is very generous.

After grading the Chemistry B exams I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were. The highest grade was 95% and the average was 79%, the lowest grade 61%. Only two students failed the exam, one of them failed the semester as well, and will have to take it over in summer school. He had almost 100 points in missing homework 2nd quarter. I informed him that the homework was still missing last week and told him that if he did it all before the exam I would give him partial credit. Needless to say, nothing was turned in.

The average on the AP Chemistry exam was in the mid 80’s, with three students doing so poorly that I feel they should drop the class. It is not my policy to force a student to drop because of poor grades, but if asked I would advise them to do so.

There are still three days of exams left until break. A much needed break I might add.

Just when you think that you can’t be surprised by as colleague’s weirdness, they surprise you again. I have written before about a colleague who often acts like he needs tin foil around his head so the government can’t read his thoughts. About a year or so ago he announced that there was going to be an armed revolution if the rich (who he hates without reserve) kept “messing” with the people. I wrote about how he scared me, somewhat, with his seemingly violent comments. I decided not to report the situation because I did not believe he really would lead an armed revolt, and he hadn’t repeated his threats to the students. He was an angry man, upset because a family member had lost her job in the economic downturn, convinced that the Republicans only cared about the wealthy.

I can hear him teach when I pop into the work room between our classrooms. On several occasions today I heard him going on about the government and/or military who are involved in something detrimental to the hoi polloi. What I couldn’t make out was exactly what was being perpetrated on us by the “man” until after school when he came into my classroom to share his theory with me.

He started by asking if I knew about some new, exciting, research by a scientist. I confessed I had heard nothing earth shattering recently and waited for him to continue. He told me that a reputable scientist recently discovered that we may all actually live in the matrix, and experiments were being designed to test this hypothesis. My first thought was that he was joking, but his tone and demeanor conveyed his seriousness concerning the matter. He then excused himself, telling me that he had soup from the cafeteria to bring home to his wife. There was a student still in the classroom who heard the exchange. After my colleague left, the student looked at me and asked if he was crazy. I laughed, then lied and told the young man that he was just kidding.

If you think about it, there are several recent surprising phenomenon that might be explained by the world being just a computer program: like, how exactly did President Obama get reelected, or why is “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” so popular? In fact, maybe the Chicago Cubs haven’t won a world series in 104 years because agent Smith is a White Sox fan. Come to think of it, the whole idea isn’t as crazy as it appears on the surface.
Just who do I talk to so I can be married to Giada de Laurentiis.

With the end of first quarter coming this week, I find myself more relaxed than last year at this time. My advanced placement students appear to work hard: keeping up with the faster pace I have set for them. My Honors Chemistry classes appear to be progressing: finally getting with the program after a slow start.

I am especially happy with my lower level Chemistry class. They have proven to be well behaved and willing to work hard, if not always consistently or successfully. It has been my observation that most of these “slower” students lack the self confidence that is standard in the honors children. They regularly seek confirmation that they are doing things correctly, need to have the simplest concept reinforced frequently, and require repeated reminders of what is due and when it is due. Many of them are fine in class, but the moment the bell rings and they leave the room, Chemistry is forgotten until they get their seats the next day. This is not due to laziness, but to a serious lack of focus. I worry about many of them. They seem to be well meaning but are significantly incompetent. Several are, in my mind, totally unemployable. I can’t imagine how they could hold down the most menial job for any length of time.

Some of these children have essentially failed at almost everything they have tried in school. They have been told they are slow, dumb, or lazy by many frustrated teachers who have been charged with their education. This frustration comes from unrealistic expectations by their teachers. I entered into this arrangement with very low expectations, generating work and assessments that are significantly more basic that I have ever used before. They don’t know the difference, except they are experiencing better than normal success. The premise is that success breeds more success while frustration breeds more frustration. My hope is that in the future they will develop the confidence to master more difficult work.

The key to making this method work is not to let the students know that you are modifying their work in any way. As far as they are concerned, they are doing the same work the regular classes are doing—they are just going through it more slowly. While I am careful not to compare the lower students to the regular or honors classes, when they make mistakes on their work I tell them not to worry—I say that the “honors” students make the same mistakes, and then re-teach the material.

Now it’s time to enjoy the rest of my Columbus Day vacation.

Today marks the beginning of the third full week of school and things are off to an uneventful start. My class schedule is similar to last year, except for my regular chemistry being replaced by a lower level class. At the end of last year we had two teachers retire. One was full time science and taught all the lower levels of chemistry while the other was both math and science, teaching three regular chemistry sections. With lower enrollment and several department members agreeing to teach an extra class for more pay, we were able to absorb all the sections without having to hire a replacement for either of the retirees. A huge benefit of this occurrence is that everyone in the department has their own room finally. I am free two periods of the day and my classroom is empty both. I no longer have to wander the halls of the school with my laptop looking for a place to work. As a result, my day is more relaxed and I am getting more work done. My lunchtime duty has also been changed. I no longer have duty in front of the cafeteria, but rather I guard a hall on the other end of the school. As a result I am bringing my own lunch and avoiding the cafeteria food. I have already seen an improvement in my blood sugar levels and general feeling of well being in the afternoon. The biggest surprise this year has been my lower level chemistry students. I asked to teach this section because the person teaching the other sections of this class did not want to work with the colleague assigned to be her partner. I had been scheduled for a regular chemistry class, but asked for the lower level classes in order to move the unwaned partner out, maintaining department harmony. My biggest fear was that these students would be discipline problems, making my life miserable for the year. Happily, they are very nice young men and women, even if not the intellectual equivalent of what I am used to. They will try to do whatever you ask them to do. While cooperative and well behaved, their lack of math ability is shocking. Let me give you an example. A problem on their homework asked them to change 2.00 x 10-4 from scientific notation to decimal form. One girls answer was 0.0002.00. That’s not a misprint—she put two decimal points in the answer. When I told her that that wasn’t allowed she stared at the paper like a dog looking at a wrist watch, and asked me if I was sure. With daily help and personal attention from me she steadily improved her homework grades until she finally passed the last assignment with a D-. The next day she took the exam and passed with a D+. The first exam for these students had an average of 81, with grades ranging from 97 to 70—everyone passing.

The first week of summer vacation has been restful and quiet. Monday I needed to be in school to finalize my grades and attend a morning meeting, but the rest of the week has been blessed vacation. My summer exercise routine consists of alternate days of biking and weight lifting in hopes of getting myself back in reasonable shape. But, while school is out, I have had to address several inquiries from parents and students. One of my best students emailed me earlier in the week to tell me that I recorded the wrong number of extra credit points on her 4th quarter grade sheet. I checked, and she was correct, but the added points did not change her grade--which was already an A+. I replied, teasing her about now getting an A++. The mother of another teacher’s student emailed me with a question about her daughter’s lost text book. Students must return their state text book before they are allowed to take their final exam. If the book is lost, it must be paid for or replaced with a used book in reasonable condition. I let the parent know there was a link on my teacher page to a site that sells used books. Several days later she contacted me again to let me know that the book had arrived and would be dropped off at the office for me. The teacher involved just retired and I volunteered to take care of his make-up exams so he could start his life of leisure. Another parent emailed to inform me that I had made a mistake in calculating her daughter’s final grade. I was informed that her daughter had an 84.2% average for the semester which should have resulted in a B-. Her grade had been reported as a C+. She requested that I either change the grade or get back to her with an explanation for what I had done. I checked her daughter’s grade and it did come out to an 84.2% when the 3rd quarter, 4th quarter, and Final Exam percentages were weighted properly and averaged. Unfortunately for the girl, final grades are not calculated using the percentage grades for each part--even though the grading program had reported that average on the students grade page--but rather, by using quality points assigned to each letter grade. The girl received a B for third quarter, B+ for 4th quarter, and failed the final exam. The B received 6 quality points, the B+ 6.8 quality points, and the F 0 points, for a total of 12.8. The minimum quality points for a semester grade of B- are 13.0. I explained this to the mother and she seemed to understand, but thought the method was unfair. I whole heartedly agree, straight percentages would be much more fair and valid, but I did not tell the parent. I did ask her to talk to assistant principal for academics to voice her concerns. To understand that using percentages would be a better way to determine semester grades requires an understanding of numbers--a skill which, sadly, many of the teachers in our building lack. The administration has left it up to the faculty to vote on how grades will be determined and my side gets outvoted by the innumerate each time. I believe that it is important that teachers do not complain to parents about the way things are done, so I publically tow the company line. If enough of the “quality point” people had to respond to parents who questioned the process things might change. I let the assistant principal know of her pending parent contact--she rolled her eyes and told me that she already had 5 other calls about the same thing. I also spoke to the registrar, who is in charge of report cards, about the situation. She is also well aware of the problem; responding to several parent s already. The present situation might be helped if she could block the reporting of % averages by the grading program, but I was informed that the program did not allow that. I refuse to let this ruin the start of my summer.

OOPSIE!

This week my comments concern an email I received through a “Department Directors” group to which I belong. It reads as follows: “Last week, our biology teachers began the evolution unit and on Friday, a student who practices being a Jehovah Witness came to school with a note from his mom saying he cannot participate in learning about evolution because he is a Jehovah Witness.” Most of the replies explained that the parents of students in this district or that had the option to opt-out of certain topics taught in school. These opt-out policies (OOP’s) are common in many public schools. According to the research I was able to do, the most common topics invoking the opt-out option are blood transfusions, diseases, and transplants, objected to by Christian Scientists who don’t believe in medical treatments, sex education, objected to by many religious conservatives who don’t want their children to know that people have sex, and evolution, objected to by those who hold to a literal translation of the Bible. When the policy includes an option related to the teachings of the evil Charles Darwin, it is referred to as an OPPSIE--opt-out option including evolution. I must admit that before I received this email and followed the links in the replies, I had no idea such silliness existed; although, I do approve of opting some students out of sex education--some gene pools should just end. Our state weighs in as follows: Sec. 27-23.5. Organ/tissue and blood donor and transplantation programs. Each school district that maintains grades 9 and 10 may include in its curriculum and teach to the students of either such grade one unit of instruction on organ/tissue and blood donor and transplantation programs. No student shall be required to take or participate in instruction on organ/tissue and blood donor and transplantation programs if a parent or guardian files written objection thereto on constitutional grounds, and refusal to take or participate in such instruction on those grounds shall not be reason for suspension or expulsion of a student or result in any academic penalty. For public schools that have a policy most read something like this: “No student shall be required to take or participate in instruction on XXX programs if a parent or guardian files written objection thereto on constitutional grounds.” I teach in a Catholic School. Catholics do not adhere to the literal translation of the Bible; consequently the whole concept of evolution is of little concern. We teach it now, in fact we have always taught evolution in Biology. I see no conflict. Periodically, a parent will want to meet with me as Department Chairman and try to get “Intelligent Design” included in our Biology curriculum. I always tell them that we do; telling them that evolution is God’s intelligent design. This usually causes a state of confusion, or invokes a mindless rage. In either case, I treat their ignorance with the contempt it deserves. Principals have always backed me up. I really have no problem with an OOP, though science teacher organizations are strongly opposed to them. The main objection being that a student who opts out of a topic like evolution has an incomplete educational experience, prevents the teacher from doing his/her job, and may also impact standardized test scores; but so does not paying attention in class, not doing homework, and being absent from school. More importantly--in my mind at least--it cripples a student’s ability to do advanced work in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics; making it unlikely they can ever become a doctor, nurse, engineer, or geologist. That being said, I would still allow parents to opt their children out of objectionable instruction, though I would like to see parents sued by their children later in life for compensation. If a parent can be successfully sued because a child was abused and needs therapy later in life, why not sue for compensation when remedial instruction is needed to make up for holes in your education caused by a parent’s poor decision?

And Now We Interrupt This Program For An Important Message

If you bother to ask teachers in our building, you will find out that many are quite disturbed and angry about the number of interruptions to their teaching time. In the last two weeks (10 class days) alone, my first period AP Chemistry class has been all but canceled by various interruptions on four separate occasions. The first time it was the day we returned from spring break when nine out of my twenty students took their “personal free day.” The PFD is given to students who raised their quota for the yearly fund drive. I have no real problem with this, except where it involves so many students that I am effectively forced to give a study hall instead of teach. The next day I had planned several important review problems, only to find out that the band members in first period were going to meet with the band directors for an important announcement. We were promised that they would only be 5-10 minutes late, and on time if an exam was scheduled, but none of my 11 band members arrived until 20 minutes into the period. One of the English teachers told me that he had an exam scheduled but his students were 20 minutes late as well. The band director has these students 5th period, but apparently the news could not wait until then. As it turns out, the news was important, but could easily have waited until his class, resulting in another unnecessary class interruption. Thursday of that week the third interruption to first period took place. Twice a year, all students who received a 4.0 GPA for the semester are honored in a ceremony before school. Invited parents and free teachers watch as each 4.0 student is called by name and given a certificate of achievement. The process usually begins at 7:30 and takes 20 minutes, returning students to their first period 5-10 minutes late. This year they got a late start; my 9 missing students not returning until 35 minutes into the period. The next Tuesday all the A.P. English Language students (14 of my 20 students) would miss the whole period for a “pre-administration meeting.” In the past I complained to the Guidance person in charge, suggesting this be done after school. I was told that this would interfere with their sports practice, which is apparently more important than my class time. Ironically, this year the A.P. Pre-administration conflicts with students being let out of class to set up for a performance of the school Musical for local grade school students. The powers that be deciding that the play was more important than pre-administration; class time being placed on the bottom rung importance ladder again. Some of my colleagues will never cease to vigorously complain when these regular interruptions occur. I have given up; realizing that my complaints about the need for more class time fall on deaf ears. While the administration would strongly deny this, what I do in class will never be valued as much as what other people do for the school.

Back Again

I haven’t written anything in my blog since November; not because I haven’t had anything to write about, but because I have been otherwise occupied. During the last two months, five of my high school classmates have passed away, one of them my college roommate.

He had been diagnosed with cancer in March of last year. Over his last 10 months we spoke on the phone every few weeks, and on three occasions we planned dinner, but each time he found himself too weak to attend. His body did not take well to the chemo and eventually it had to be discontinued. The last time we spoke was the day before we were to get together for a Christmas dinner at my home. He said his physical condition was such that he could no longer get out of bed. A week later, on Christmas day, his wife called and said that he was in intensive care; his organs failing fast. I went to the hospital that day to see him, but he was unconscious, a week later he passed away.

I have an email list of our class—supplied by the alumni office—and have used it to inform everyone of some event. I used it to try to get everyone to come to the last reunion, and to announce the death of a former teacher. When I sent out a message about his death I was shocked to find out through replies that four other classmates had died as well; all within about six weeks time. Needless to say, it is quite unsettling to be faced with the deaths of your friends, especially as many as this in a short time. Two of them passed away and were buried before I knew, but I was able to attend the wakes of the other three including my former roommate.

As far as school goes, we had a very successful open house for prospective students in early December, though the numbers at the entrance exam were a bit disappointing. On the bright side, the results of the exam indicate that the scores are up from last year, especially among the top students. All-in-all, our freshmen class next year should be about the same size as this year.

Semester exams went off without a hitch, and for the third year in a row I did not have any failures for the semester. After a somewhat restful Christmas break, the second semester began with a few changes in my class list. Friday we made it to mid-quarter.

My outside tutoring has been busy and I have been feeling the effects of long days, getting home after 8:00pm many times in recent weeks. I leave the house at about 6:30 am each morning. Last weekend I was so worn-out that I slept twelve hours Friday night, napped for four hours Saturday afternoon, and ten more hours Saturday night. I then spent eight hours Sunday grading papers and doing work for school. This weekend I have no school work to do so I am relaxing before another week of long days and late night tutoring sessions.

I have no interest in the Super Bowl beyond the numbers I got in the pool I joined. A batch of beef stew in the slow cooker today is awaiting my wife getting up after working last night at the hospital, and a possible visit from my daughter before she attends her super bowl party later.

Bloom Where You’re Planted!

I received an email the first day of 2nd quarter from one of the office attendants. Apparently, one of my students withdrew, transferring to another school. She failed two classes first quarter, one of them mine, and got D’s in the other four. While the email gave no reason for the withdrawal, I had spoken to the father last month and knew the reason. She left because there are too many black students at our school and she felt uncomfortable--or so the father claimed. In reality, for those of us who had watched her interact with the African American students in the building, she had no problem getting along with blacks. Those of us, who know her, speculate that she wanted to leave in order to escape the work load and exploited the parent’s prejudices in order to go into a less rigorous environment. One of my colleagues even reported that she was rather close to a young African American man, hardly the behavior of a person who didn’t feel comfortable around blacks. As reprehensible as this situation is I would be lying if I did not confess that I see a similar attitude in many of my colleagues who believe that the overall ability of our students has been lowered significantly because of the increased population of African Americans. To this I would disagree.

My graduating class-more than 40 years ago--had two blacks out of 250+ seniors, less than 1%. As the communities that feed into the school have changed, so has the school population. Today, blacks make up about 39% of the students here, and that percentage is going up. It is clear that some day in the future we will probably be an all black school. Whether this happens before I retire (in less than 10 years) is unknown, though not likely. What is certain is that someday, before I retire, I will teach in a school that is more than half black. Based on my experience with the type of black student we attract now, I am not concerned.

Many of my colleagues are quite upset at this state of affairs. Some publically complain that the “students” we get now are not as good as the students we had in the past. While it is never spoken out loud, it is clear they are referring to the increasing number of blacks. When I told a colleague that I saw no such change in the abilities of my students over time she looked at me with the famous, "I just smelled something bad" face and told me I was crazy. Luckily, she is going to retire at the end of this year. Another colleague told me that I didn’t see the drastic change in ability because I teach only honors students, implying that I did not have as many blacks in my classes as those who taught the average students. I was curious about this idea and decided to collect some data.

As I said before, African American students make up about 39% of the school population. My classes break down as follows; A.P. Chemistry 34% Black, Honors Chemistry 37% Black, and Chemistry A 37% black. While the number in AP seems to be significantly low, it is not. If one student changed from white to black in that class, blacks would be 39%. So I can say with numbers to back me up that I have a representative mix of students. Do the blacks do significantly worse than the white students do? Well—no! The average grades (%) for white students vs. minority students in my classes breaks down to; AP Chemistry- blacks 86.7%,white 87.6%; Honors Chemistry- white 90.6%, black 90.4%; and Chemistry A- white 83.7%, black 87.5%. The numbers indicate that there is no objective evidence of a significant difference between white students and minority students in my classes—except if you take into account that blacks do much better than whites in my Chemistry A class. I hypothesize that the suggestion that blacks are bringing down the achievement level of our students is subjective, and based on a pre-existing belief that blacks are not a bright of whites.

The students I have now are as good as any I have ever had—the evidence for this is clear, AP scores in all subject areas are increasing at my school, even as the percentage of minority students increases. Academics are color blind—subject matter doesn’t care if you are black or white. The skills students needed 20 years ago are the same skills students need today,
Many of my colleagues need to silence their prejudices and teach students regardless of the color if their skin.

Welcome Back!

There were only three new teachers in our building this school year, one of which had taught here for a time two years ago. She is a language teacher and, while we are not close friends, I can say that we are acquainted. Her last year here we shared a free period; having coffee each morning and grading papers in the teacher’s room. My impression of her was that she was highly competent and professional, well liked by her students, and motivated to do a good job.

I have little contact with her this year, having different free periods. In fact, Friday was the first time I saw her long enough to ask how things were going. We met in the copy room and I asked, “How do you like being back?” This seemingly innocuous question led to a 20 minute discussion of how bad the other school was and how happy she was to be back; having escaped the land of juvenile delinquents and incompetent administrators.

She had taught in public schools before, even substituting at the public school she left us for. This teacher reported to me that she knew something was different the first few days of her new job. There were 36 desks in her classroom, but was assigned 42 students. Upon bringing this to the principal’s attention was told not to worry because after a few days many of the students would stop showing up. There was no tracking in her area, so she had students of all ability levels each period. Some, she said, were intelligent and hard working, but many were functionally illiterate delinquents. She claimed that the local police were in the building every day taking students away for crimes they had committed outside of school. On numerous occasions, security was called to her room to remove an especially disruptive child who was preventing her from delivering instruction.

School policy prevented her from failing students. Students not completing enough work to pass were to be given an “incomplete” and allowed to redo work and retake tests as many times as necessary to successfully get credit. As a result of this policy, students had no incentive to work hard and pay attention in class. The school policy—“Failure is not an option.”—was scam being played on the parents. It did not prevent students from failing; it only prevented their failure from being acknowledged publically.

Things got really complicated for her when she finished her Master’s degree and requested the pay increase their union contract required. The administration initially denied her pay increase but the union stepped in and forced them to comply. At this point se claimed that the administration became very hostile toward her; doing everything possible to get rid of her. She was continually observed by assistant principals, blamed for every class problem that arose, and run around the three stories of the building changing rooms every period. She reported being told that students not paying attention in class, being disruptive, or even absent were the result of her not being engaging enough in the classroom. When she pointed out that many of these problem students were problems for everyone she was labeled as uncooperative and told that there were no “problem” students in the district.

When one of our language teachers retired last year, she was enthusiastically hired back.

Escape from Chemisry!

When I was in graduate school I was taking a statistics course and, when the first exam was returned, if the student had failed, the teacher stapled a filled out add/drop form to the student’s exam. It was her not so subtle way of letting you know that you did not belong in her class.

Some of my colleagues have similar ways of getting rid of students they don’t think measure up. I, on the other hand, am not as quick to press the matter when I feel a student should drop. In my experience, if you force the matter, the student and parent will always believe that you acted rashly and that they could have passed if allowed to stay. I prefer when the student or parent throws in the towel and requests the change in schedule, which usually occurs after the student’s grade has tanked and they have their “epiphany.”

Surprisingly, some teachers make it difficult to get out of their subject. I don’t know why, you would think that a bored or failing student would become a discipline problem in class and you would want to get rid of them. I have often spoken to teachers who take a student’s underachievement as a personal insult to them; the punishment being that the student has to stay.

I have already lost one student this year to a schedule change. She requested to be moved from Honors Chemistry to regular Chemistry because she was struggling, while in reality. she had a B- and was not doing that poorly. I think that she realized that Honors would require a level of study and commitment that was more than she was willing to give. The mother emailed me requesting the change; asking it be done as soon as possible. When I approached the assistant principal in charge of approving the schedule change she was reluctant, feeling that the student should be required to stick it out. I was able to convince her that the change should be made and the paperwork was processed that day.

I have two other students who I feel should drop, one in AP Chemistry and one in my regular Chemistry class. As is my policy, I am not pushing the change now. Both parents have been contacted and neither parent wants their student to drop. I am waiting until their situation is serious enough that neither parent will fight the process. This should occur for both of them in about three weeks at the end of the quarter. Both of them are failing now.

Another student has made it clear, through nonverbal communication, that he is not happy with me as a teacher or the amount of work I require. After the quiz last Friday, he asked to get a pass to Guidance. The average grade on the quiz was 83% while his grade was 35%. I said I could not, explaining that all passes to guidance had to be made through his study hall teacher. He responded with mild disrespect, but went back to his seat, put his head on the desk, and fell asleep. Soon a request will come from his mother to arrange a schedule change; a request I will honor as soon as the quarter ends. He will then become some other teacher’s problem.

School just ended its second full week things have been exciting to say the least. The extreme heat and humidity, coupled with a case of food poisoning landed me in the emergency room at the end of the second day of school. I was diagnosed with extreme dehydration and given an IV to restore my fluids. Two days later, when my blood work returned to normal, I was released.

My symptoms began just as school ended with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea followed by extreme sweating. I thought it was an insulin reaction and had another teacher get the school nurse. After a quick check of my blood sugar—which was normal—I experienced another violent bout of vomiting. The nurse feared I was having a heart attack but I was not convinced, having experienced food poisoning before. My friend in the Theology department and another from the Math department volunteered to take me home. I called my wife and told her what was happening. Half way home she called me on my cell phone, insisting that I meet her at the emergency room. They immediately determined that I was not having a heart attack. While with the triage nurse I began to violently vomit again in a garbage can. My blood work indicated abnormal kidney function and a very high potassium level. The diagnosis was severe dehydration, resulting in me getting a shot to reduce the nausea and IV fluids. I felt better after about an hour, but was kept under observation Thursday and Friday night until my blood work came back normal again. I was released about 11am Saturday.

The next week I was back at full strength, being careful to drink fluids all day and wash my hands better when handling raw chicken in an attempt to stave-off a reoccurrence. Later that week we had our annual “back to school” night, when parents get to meet the teachers and run through their student’s schedule. Teachers characteristically dislike this evening. After a long day in a hot and humid school the last thing most of us want to do is come back at 7:00pm and spend two more hours in a hot sticky building. Many young teachers don’t understand the purpose of this evening. As unpleasant as it is, especially when the temperature is hot, the night serves an important purpose for the school. Getting parents involved and engaged is essential to educating their children. Only about half my parents attend the evening; much less than half for the seniors and much more than half for the freshmen. I see it as an important duty that needs to be done, even if it is a minor imposition on my free time.

As they run through their student’s schedule, the parents have 5 minute sessions with each teacher. During my time I introduce myself and explain how parents can monitor their student’s progress and assignments. One parent, who arrived late to her student’s period, asked me to repeat everything she missed. The request was obnoxious and insensitive considering it was her fault. I smiled and suggested that she come during her son’s study hall period so she would not be late for his next period. She agreed and thanked me for the suggestion, but never returned.

After leaving the house at 6:30 am that morning, I got back home at about 9:45 pm.

Back to School!

Back to school time is here and, as usual, one more month of vacation would be greatly appreciated. As one of my colleagues commented when I made the last statement, just think of it being that much closer to retirement. Actually I am not desperately longing for the day when I can retire; I enjoy teaching and getting back to school time is not as depressing as you might think. The excitement and anticipation of a new school year dulls the pain of having to get up at 5:30 a.m. again.

As usual, my year began with a 9:00 a.m. department chairman meeting on Monday, followed by a department meeting, lunch, and a useless hour spent at a technology in-service. Tuesday included mass (we are a Catholic school), a faculty meeting which was not so bad that I wanted to kill myself to make it end, lunch, and an afternoon of setting up my classroom for the return of the students. Tomorrow the new freshmen run through their schedule and get acclimated to the school. “Senior friends” are assigned to walk small groups of “freshies” through where everything is in the building and how to open their locker—you would be surprised at how difficult this can be for some. Five minute classes give the students a chance to meet their teachers. I have at least one freshmen four of my five teaching periods with no more than three any period, so I have to be present for the morning sessions. I really don’t mind, taking into consideration that I would be there anyway setting things up for tomorrow. The day’s activities end before noon for everyone.

Thursday and Friday are half-days with 25 minute periods. By the end of the week I will have gone over my class policies with the new chemistry students, passed out text books, run through the schedule for the first unit, and set up a seating chart so I can learn their names quickly. Only a painfully inexperienced or incompetent teacher would allow the students to choose their own seats.

Monday marks the first full day of classes. My students will check into lab and have their “materials check” for their first grade. Tuesday is a quiz on the safety rules before we jump into Unit 1. Later the first week parents will return for “back-to-school night.” All in all, the first two weeks proceed at a frenetic pace, a real kick in the pants, culminating with the three day Labor Day weekend. Just the prescription to get everyone back in the grove; and an early start that results in the end of school coming before June begins.

My situation is better than many others; my concerns minor. I could be one of those teachers that have been laid off because of funding cuts with no prospect of being hired because of the budget cuts in most school districts. I could be a member of the Chicago Teachers Union whose president has predicted that the teachers will strike because of the loss of their promised pay raise and a perception of disrespect by the rank and file. I could be employed by a school where nobody cared if anyone learned anything; mailing it in until I reached retirement age.

I work for a school that is committed to excellence, teach students who are eager to learn, and work with many colleagues that I can respect and admire.

School Funding Crisis

Almost every day there is a story in the media about the government taking some punative action against some government workers union. The shit first hit the fan months ago when the Republican governor of Wisconsin took action against his state workers unions. The result was the disappearance of the Democratic state senators so a vote could not be taken along with statewide demonstrations that could easily have become riots. Things have seemed to calm down for now, but the public is tense and things could explode again. The action by Wisconsin was followed by similar actions by several other states; leaving many state workers feeling like they were under siege, with most of the public animosity directed towards the teachers unions.

In my state, Illinois, the mayor of Chicago--by way of the school board-- canceled the teachers scheduled 4% pay raise resulting in the Chicago Teachers Union president comparing the rank and file to slaves. (Can anyone say hyperbole?) Had the mayor and governor been Republicans the city would have been burned to the ground the next day, but since they are Democrats nothing of consequence will occur. I feel it’s doubtful that the union will strike, and for the sake of the students I hope I'm correct. With 70% of the school budget going to salaries this is probably only the beginning of the government attack on the teachers union. With a +$700 deficit to close more cuts are certain.

Two weeks ago I was at a gathering of family and friends where the topic of the teachers pay raise came up. The group included tea party members, ultra-liberals, and everything in-between. I was shocked to find that all but one individual were soundly against the teachers. Even the unabashed progressives agreed that the teachers were paid too much and the unions had gone too far. The sole person in favor of the teachers’ position was herself, a public school teacher. The consensus was clear—unions were once necessary to insure workers rights, but were now out of control and had to be reined in.

The public school teacher argued that teacher pensions were not out of control because people didn’t think of them correctly. She proposed that the teachers’ pension debt was like a mortgage—it may seem large but does not have to be paid today, but in small installments over time. You could tell that she was instructed what to say, probably by her union, and really didn’t understand her own analogy. As I pointed out, your mortgage doesn’t increase by 3% every year along with medical payments. The pension situation is unsustainable and has to be changed. Unfortunately, teachers will probably never get what was promised to them.

This leads me to the three things that are to blame for the present education funding crisis; (1) unions that over the years pushed for higher salaries and more benefits without regard for how the state would pay for them, (2) an educational system that pays teachers based on how many years of experience they have rather than the quality of their work, and (3) the misguided attitude that more funding is always the answer to why students don’t achieve. Teachers will argue that a small increase in taxes could set everything right.

Using the most recent demographic information the +$700 million school deficit for the next school year corresponds to approximately $320 per person in the city—approximately $1300 per family of four. The median city income being approximately $75,000 and assuming an overall tax rate of 40% each family of 4 would have to pay 3%of their take-home pay just of close the school deficit. How many people would be willing to take a 3% pay cut so teachers could have their 4% pay raise? Try selling that one to the general public.

Blago Guilty!

Critical Thinking Activity

Propose a real-world example that correcponds to the series of cartoons below.

Values

Reported in many newspapers, the “Hooters” controversy in a Pennsylvania middle school has made national news. The comment below was posted by a more “progressive” reader in response to a woman who said she was a parent of one of the students and expressed outraged at the actions of the school chaperones.

“Really, please, you are the reason the world has sex addicts. Your post was so absurd and ridiculous I could not get through it. It’s a restaurant, not a strip club, your 14 year old will be fine, what do you do when he is at the beach? Or maybe you don't take him because of all the so called sinful things his raging hormones might think. So he might get a chubby now and then, might jerk off...so what it’s perfectly normal....sexuality is a part of life and they are learning it early in school.”

What strikes me as most offensive is the way the legitimate concerns of the parent are dismissed so condescendingly by the writer. I would not be surprised if she had no children of her own.

I am not usually characterized as a sexual prude, and I have been to Hooters, but taking a group of 8th graders to lunch at Hooters as part of a school sponsored field trip is irresponsible—period. I was amused by the cowardly statement by the district superintendent who said he wished the chaperones had made a different choice, but no parents had complained. The decision by the chaperones was wrong and should have been confronted as such, whether any parents objected or not. I am fairly certain that such a decision would never have been made by one of my colleagues. If it had, I am sure my principal would have treated such a poor decision privately with an appropriate reprimand and publically apologized to the parents whether they complained or not. It would have been treated as a serious lack of judgment, not an unfortunate mistake.

The quote below is from a woman who was trying to defend Representative Anthony Weiner for his recent bad actions. She is trying to minimize his responsibility by blaming it on the women he texted.

“Everyone always blames the man! What about these women who send lewd pictures of themselves to entice these men who already have this problem. They send them these lewd, half naked pic's and talk dirty, sexy, and everything you can imagine to these men to get them to do these things, ( send nude photos, talk nasty to them ) and then all of a sudden they decide to go public with it. I myself think that is very low grade. If you didn't like where it was going on you should have put a stop to it before it got out of hand. I (BLAME) the women too, if not more. They can put an end to it anytime their little heart desires, but no they keep playing the game, and then decide to cause a public scandal with what has been going on for 3 yrs. Why? Why bring it out now? All you did was ruin a man’s life, granted he was a big part of it, but after all "HE"S A MAN” You women have to learn to live with the fact that "ALL" men have a strong sex drive, and your teasing them just makes it worse!!!”

What this says about our society is significant as well as a little distressing. Taking both of these comments into consideration two things are clear; (1) Anthony Weiner should have spent more time at Hooters when he was 13, and (2) he could still get reelected in his district.

Why I hate Politics!

My mother-in-law, God rest her soul, observed that the continuum between liberals and conservatives was a circle not a line. In other words, as the two positions became more and more extreme they actually moved ever closer together rather than apart. This observation is crystal clear to any objective observer; assuming there are any objective observers left. Sadly, almost everyone who votes has rationalized their position to the extent that they are blinded to the truth.

The problem, in my opinion, is that the media has taken sides and has stopped presenting information without also spinning it to sway opinion. This is done by both the movements, liberal and conservative, each maintaining they are impartial, when in fact they are both full of shit. Let me give you an example.

In my opinion Rush Limbaugh is an arrogant, self-important ass, who mistakenly thinks that his success is based on his superior intelligence and talent. In reality, his success can be attributed to being in the right place at the right time with a marketable “monkey trick.” The fact that he is insufferable does not affect the validity of his arguments or positions. Being basically conservative, I would agree with much, but not all of what he proposes, even if I would rather plunge a knitting needle into my ear than spend any length of time listening to him. His counterparts on the liberal side are equally detestable.

Yesterday I was listening to our local “progressive” radio station and was assaulted by one of the most vile, detestable programs I can remember. The host (I don’t recall his name) who apparently prides himself on being civil and not allowing any negative talk on his program referred to Limbaugh as hateful , suggesting that something terrible must have happened to him during his life to make Rush the way he is. When a caller challenged his commitment to civil discourse the host spent twenty minutes explaining how calling Limbaugh “hateful” and implying that he—along with his audience--are mentally ill was not uncivil, essentially because it was true. How he kept a straight face during his explanation is a mystery to me. The program also contained a commercial for a book that outlined how conservatives were horribly bad people, with an entire chapter concerning the Cheney family and how wicked and corrupt they are. There are numerous counter arguments against the conservative solution to our social/economic problems, but you won’t hear any on this “progressive” station. Just vote against them because they are “bad” people—that should be enough reason.

If the founding fathers could have known the extent to which these examples of political propaganda and character assignation would be publically decimated by the media, they might not have written a right to free speech into the constitution. These propaganda machines, left and right, liberal and conservative are shameful, appealing to the most bigoted and ignorant in society.

Hopefully, one of the hottest levels of Hell is reserved for the media who promote this circus for personal gain and those political partisans who use this propaganda to decide who to vote for. They are the problem.