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.

Odds-and-Ends on a Winter's Day

My friend in the Theology Department felt compelled to reply to my post on Evolution vs. Intelligent Design. She wrote . . .

“In your article you address science vs. religion....evolution vs. intelligent design. I am confronted in the religion classroom every day by students who refuse to listen to anything other than what they have been taught in their bible-based churches. When I teach theology I teach from a pastoral position, not a doctrinal position. (Pastoral theology focuses on the logical, rational, personal, sociological and psychological reasons behind the doctrinal teaching.) And yet kids abandon all reason when it comes to religion, preferring, of course, to refer to bizarre understandings and beliefs because that makes religion mysterious rather than practical. Their thinking goes something like..."If God and religion is too mysterious to understand, then how can God expect me to follow it? God can't hold me accountable for things I don't understand."

If religion was taught to everyone from the pastoral position, then people would understand the Creation Story as a way for particular culture in a particular time to define itself, define the unknown, and define how the people in that culture should relate to one another. Instead, bible-based churches make the Creation Story a science lesson. Obviously, it can't be, because it disintegrates when held up to scientific scrutiny. Can we change the science of evolution? No. But we can learn to understand the Creation Story as a cultural foundational myth. My frustration with my teaching is that the more and more students we get from non-Catholic, non-churched families, the more resistance we face in the classroom. It gets incredibly stultifying after the numbers of bb kids increases, and the number of kinds from Catholic homes who received GOOD primary education shrinks to near nothing.”

Her point is well taken. In an effort to combat the lack of understanding created by the bible-based teaching many of our students get from their church, our priest on staff has recently made an appearance in biology classes to explain the Catholic churches view on the Theory of Evolution. I have been told that some of the Catholic students are surprised that there is no conflict between Catholic doctrine and Science.

On an unrelated note, the failing girl whose mother was so contentious (see A Tale of Two Parents, February 11th.) missed all of last week. No blocked driveway this time, just mono. The mother, who had not contacted me once this year before mid-quarter, emailed me twice last week asking for homework. One of the boys whose parents I had not heard back from is apparently leaving school at the end of the year. His mother got back to me 10 days after I contacted her to let me know that he was failing most of his classes, and she told me they were no longer willing to spend the $8000+’year to send him to a private school. At his local public school he can fail for free. This is a real tragedy for the boy, who is extraordinarily bright and could be in line for a scholarship to college if he would only turn in homework and work up to his ability.

The Origin of Stupidity

I belong to a Google group called IACT. The other day I received an email with a post someone made on the message board. It read. . .

“Although I appreciate very much Darwin's contribution to science, it’s hard for me to get past his racists views. I have met good science teachers who harbor some of these
views, due in part to their almost cult like following of strict Darwinian Theory. Some of what Darwin said in his second book would be considered hate speech today, and he
would be portrayed as a monster. I've heard good arguments that his belief in the superior Caucasian race helped in bringing about the Holocaust. I'm not saying I agree with that, I just think its important for us to take a serious look at all of his contributions before we elevate him to the status of Newton. That's just my opinion.”

The post, in response to several other posts concerning the celebration of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, was a pathetic attempt to attack the teaching of evolution in schools. The author went out of his way to make it look like he was thoughtful and reasonable, and make the “good science teachers” he referred to look like “cult” members for believing in evolution. He never says here whether he believes in evolution or not, but I will bet you he is a religious conservative who thinks that belief in evolution is equivalent to being an atheist.

I usually don’t respond to such ignorance, but I was “inspired” by his attempt to trash evolutionary theory and posted the following on the message board. . .


In response to Ryan; I had thought that the issue of teaching intelligent design had been settled once and for all when the court ruled on the case against the Dover school system. The court ruled that intelligent design was religion and could not be taught in the public schools. Unfortunately for all of us (science teachers) the ID proponents have changed their tact and are now accusing Darwin of being a racist, hoping to garner support for their ultimate goal—taking evolution out of the school system. Apparently if they can’t get ID in they will settle for getting Darwin out because, in their mind, believing in evolution is incompatible with believing in God. I am a Catholic, and have taught in a Catholic school for more than 30 years. I believe in intelligent design and evolution. Evolution is God’s intelligent design, but even I (in a religious school) don’t mention ID in class. It is Religion not Science, and as such has no place in a science classroom. Yes, like Ryan, I have noticed that some of my colleagues are racist. That is because they are ignorant not because they believe evolution. There is nothing in the modern theory of evolution that would support a racist view, or suggest that there is no God. The anti-evolutionists are simply ignorant people who don’t understand science, evolution, or religion. Rather than trashing Darwin and evolutionary theory they should look inward and try to figure out why they lack faith. (posted 2/13/09)

Our Theology Department Chairperson has had to respond to complaints by parents and students that the theory of evolution is anti-religious and should not be taught in our school. She has stated that the Bible is not a science book or a history text, but a guide to how God wants us to live our lives. Catholics have never had a problem with the theory of evolution, mostly because we do not interpret the Bible literally. I don’t know where the whole idea that belief in evolution and belief in a God became incompatible, but it comes from an ignorance of both science and religion. Many people who ignorantly spew this nonsense believe it because they were told they have to by their pastor or preacher.

A favorite response to my suggestion that they don’t understand either the theory of evolution or their religion is something like . . . “You mean you believe that we came from chimpanzees?” To which I respond (while looking at them like they were retarded) “Of course not—what would make you think something so stupid?” They usually get angry at this point; and exclaim. . . “That’s what the theory of evolution says—we came from chimps.” The theory of evolution does not say that we came from chimps, but that chimps and man evolved from a common ancestor; something completely different. I challenge them to show me where in the text of the theory it says that, which makes them look like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming Mac truck, exposing their ignorance. I would like to give them the finger at this point, but the sisters that run my school would probably not approve. Instead I tell them that if they can show me in the text of the theory where it says either that God does not exist, or man came from chimps, I will work to get the theory out of our curriculum. I even offer to lend them my copy of Darwin’s book “Origin of Species” so they can show me, but that would require reading which is incompatible with true ignorance, so none of them take me up on it.

Maybe I’m wrong and some of them did evolve from chimps.

A Tale of Two Parents

The ultimate success of a student is often times influenced by the attitude of a parent more than the skill of the teacher.

Last week was mid-quarter, a time during the year when teachers are supposed to contact parents if their student is doing poorly. A review of my grade book revealed six students who had a D or F at the time, and their parents needed to be notified. The notification process is entirely unnecessary because parents can check student grades daily online in each of their classes. Our administration is afraid that a “neglectful” parent will fail to check grades regularly. If this happens, and the student ends up failing, they are afraid that the parent will complain. “If I only knew she was doing poorly I could have done something!”, and “Why didn’t the teacher let me know?”

My answer to that question would be that the teacher did let you know; when the grades were posted online you were informed what they were. It is not the teacher’s fault that you didn’t look online any more than it would be if the teacher called you about the grade and you didn’t listen. Unfortunately administrators don’t know how to talk to parents, so parents and students become incompetent and helpless, with all responsibility falling on the teacher.

Anyway, I contacted all six parents by email concerning their student’s grade. One message was returned as undeliverable; a subsequent phone call resulted in no answer and no transfer to voice mail. Three of the messages were delivered, but I got no response. Of those three, two responded when contacted last quarter, but now are apparently giving up on trying to effect any change in their student. The other two replied.

One was a father who apparently grounded his daughter. I had indicated in the message that she was failing because of missing work. She appeared at my desk the next morning and sheepishly handed in the missing work, apologizing for her irresponsibility. The father’s email told me that she was coming to see me and I was to email him again if she failed to show. I graded the missing work, deducting an appropriate penalty for being late, and her grade improved from F to D+ as a result. The father assured me that he would keep a constant tab on her from now on and promised that she would not be so irresponsible again.

The other was a mother who returned my email and asked me to call her on the phone. We spoke that evening and the conversation did not go well from the start. She was contentious, argumentative, and accusatory. She argued that none of her daughter’s scholastic difficulties were her fault—by “her” she meant both herself and her daughter.
The mother told me that the girl’s grade problems were because of two days of school she missed last week because of the snow. Apparently the city snow plow buried the front of her driveway when cleaning the street, making it impossible for her or the daughter to leave home for two days. I tried to respond with compassion and understanding; even though I was sure that the pile of bullshit I was being handed was much higher than the pile of snow at the bottom of her driveway.

The first girl is in honors chemistry, has a GPA of 3.7 and has never been a problem before. The second is in regular chemistry, has a GPA of 1.80, and is absent at least once a week. Hopefully my story explain why.