For anyone interested in having an administration favoring education in power this coming January, consider the educational record of the McCain-Palin candidates. McCain, himself, finished near the bottom of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy, hardly an institution noted for its academic prowess.
Palin went to six different colleges in six years before she finally received her degree. None of her own children have ever been to college (doesn't that say something about her and her family'as values ?), and her husband, First Bubba WannaBe, may not even have finished high school. If you think a McCain-Palin ticket would promote improved education, which we sorely need to be competitive on the world market during the next thirty years, think again.
For full details about Palin's college education, go to httP://sendtoafriend.abcnews.go.com/politics/wireStory?id=5728215
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The Substitute's Revenge
Today was a fairly good day, neither totally easy, but most of the time also not difficult. I substituted for a math teacher I had substituted for in the past. I also had several interesting encounters with students.
When one is 70 years old, as I am, and has studied God knows how many subjects and done a lot of reading during one's life, one inevitably become so well-rounded all he can do is roll. That describes me fairly well. The reason I know a little bit about a lot of subjects is simply because I have been around a long time. But this sure comes in handy with students when you least expect it.
The first was not part of the usual repertoire I draw on when I need it. It just happened. The second was part of my repertoire.
In one of the math classes, many of the students set about immediately doing the math problem sheets I had passed out. One student, however, did not. This was one very big guy. I thought he was Samoan or Tongan. You would have to say he was fat, but it was the kind of powerful, muscular fat that some Polynesians have. He wore dark, dark sunglasses so his eyes couldn't be seen. His last name suggested that he might be Tongan.
I asked him if he was.
He replied that he wasn't, that he was part Vietnamese and part Chinese, and that lots of people thought at first that he was Tongan.
I commented that having lived years ago in a Samoan village, if I had been able to see his eyes I might have known. "As Shakespeare said," I mentioned, "The eyes are the windows of the soul."
He took off his glasses and looked at me. "I like Shakespeare," he said. I read him a lot." (This was coming from an 11th grader !) "The trouble with Shakespeare, though, is that it's always about love." And he mentioned "Romeo and Juliet."
"You've been stuck in the tragedies," I replied. "Try the histories or the comedies. Try Richard the Third." I explained that here was a character who was one of Shakespeare's most evil. Born a hunchback, Richard III wanted to take it out on the world. I told the student about the drowning of the princes in the Tower of London, and about a few of Richard's other deeds.
Then we got back on the subject of love in Shakespeare's plays again, and we talked about Beatrice and Benedict, and how Shakespeare often wrote about how love makes fools of us all. It isn't all about waking up, seeing your lover asleep, thinking this was death, and taking poison to join them.
And then back to the subject of good and evil as people embody these and express these themes. We talked about looks and how these are supposed to reveal moral character, and we laughed about how wrong this notion often is. "It comes originally from the ancient Greeks, who thought that a handsome or beautiful exterior revealed a person's moral character. If you ever have to write an essay about something in Shakespeare, you could write about this.," I told him. "Hamlet is supposed to be handsome and of good character, isn't he ? But what about Othello ? What did the English way back then think about Black people ? What did they think about Blackness ? But Othello was essentially a moral person, wasn't he ? He was just driven mad by jealousy."
And so on. Yes, it was a math class, but if a student learns something about anything, I've come to count the session as a successful one.
When we finished talking, the kid did his math. At least I had also given him something to think about that interested him.
And then we come to the story of Mao T'se Tung. A few of my facts here may be wrong, but the gist of my story is correct.
A student in another class sat at his desk doing nothing, the math work sheet in front of him. I asked him if he was going to do his work. He shrugged.
"Then I must tell you about Chairman Mao"
"Who ?"
"Chairman Mao, who was the leader of the Chinese communists at the end of World War II, and who was responsible for expelling the Chinese Nationalists to the island op Taiwan."
"Chairman Mao and his followers made what has been referred to as 'The Long March.' They walked 10,000 miles to the coastline of their country, driving the Nationalists out of the country.
He became a total dictator, but was almost worshipped by many of the people. He had a number of sayings. These were collected and printed in what became known as 'Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.' Everybody, it seemed, carried a copy of this book, and quoted Chairman Mao often.
"One of his sayings was that "A journey of 10,000 miles begins with but a single step.
"What is your single step with this assignment ? It is to open your book and look at your math problems. Please make this happen now."
As pompous as telling the story may sound, it usually works. The kid in question not only started on his problems, but finished them all before the end of the class.
When one is 70 years old, as I am, and has studied God knows how many subjects and done a lot of reading during one's life, one inevitably become so well-rounded all he can do is roll. That describes me fairly well. The reason I know a little bit about a lot of subjects is simply because I have been around a long time. But this sure comes in handy with students when you least expect it.
The first was not part of the usual repertoire I draw on when I need it. It just happened. The second was part of my repertoire.
In one of the math classes, many of the students set about immediately doing the math problem sheets I had passed out. One student, however, did not. This was one very big guy. I thought he was Samoan or Tongan. You would have to say he was fat, but it was the kind of powerful, muscular fat that some Polynesians have. He wore dark, dark sunglasses so his eyes couldn't be seen. His last name suggested that he might be Tongan.
I asked him if he was.
He replied that he wasn't, that he was part Vietnamese and part Chinese, and that lots of people thought at first that he was Tongan.
I commented that having lived years ago in a Samoan village, if I had been able to see his eyes I might have known. "As Shakespeare said," I mentioned, "The eyes are the windows of the soul."
He took off his glasses and looked at me. "I like Shakespeare," he said. I read him a lot." (This was coming from an 11th grader !) "The trouble with Shakespeare, though, is that it's always about love." And he mentioned "Romeo and Juliet."
"You've been stuck in the tragedies," I replied. "Try the histories or the comedies. Try Richard the Third." I explained that here was a character who was one of Shakespeare's most evil. Born a hunchback, Richard III wanted to take it out on the world. I told the student about the drowning of the princes in the Tower of London, and about a few of Richard's other deeds.
Then we got back on the subject of love in Shakespeare's plays again, and we talked about Beatrice and Benedict, and how Shakespeare often wrote about how love makes fools of us all. It isn't all about waking up, seeing your lover asleep, thinking this was death, and taking poison to join them.
And then back to the subject of good and evil as people embody these and express these themes. We talked about looks and how these are supposed to reveal moral character, and we laughed about how wrong this notion often is. "It comes originally from the ancient Greeks, who thought that a handsome or beautiful exterior revealed a person's moral character. If you ever have to write an essay about something in Shakespeare, you could write about this.," I told him. "Hamlet is supposed to be handsome and of good character, isn't he ? But what about Othello ? What did the English way back then think about Black people ? What did they think about Blackness ? But Othello was essentially a moral person, wasn't he ? He was just driven mad by jealousy."
And so on. Yes, it was a math class, but if a student learns something about anything, I've come to count the session as a successful one.
When we finished talking, the kid did his math. At least I had also given him something to think about that interested him.
And then we come to the story of Mao T'se Tung. A few of my facts here may be wrong, but the gist of my story is correct.
A student in another class sat at his desk doing nothing, the math work sheet in front of him. I asked him if he was going to do his work. He shrugged.
"Then I must tell you about Chairman Mao"
"Who ?"
"Chairman Mao, who was the leader of the Chinese communists at the end of World War II, and who was responsible for expelling the Chinese Nationalists to the island op Taiwan."
"Chairman Mao and his followers made what has been referred to as 'The Long March.' They walked 10,000 miles to the coastline of their country, driving the Nationalists out of the country.
He became a total dictator, but was almost worshipped by many of the people. He had a number of sayings. These were collected and printed in what became known as 'Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.' Everybody, it seemed, carried a copy of this book, and quoted Chairman Mao often.
"One of his sayings was that "A journey of 10,000 miles begins with but a single step.
"What is your single step with this assignment ? It is to open your book and look at your math problems. Please make this happen now."
As pompous as telling the story may sound, it usually works. The kid in question not only started on his problems, but finished them all before the end of the class.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Another Day
I had no assignment for today but I received a call at 7:25 a.m. to come to School A because a teacher was unexpectedly going to be absent.
The day consisted of two periods of World History, a conference period (in which no students are present, so the teacher can relax and think about what is coming up next), followed by an American History class, lunch (45 minutes), and two more periods of American history.
For starters, these classes were to take place in one of the temporary buildings, and there were no keys to the classroom available. I had to go find a custodian to unlock the classroom. This sounds as though it isn't important, but the walk from where one signs in to the temporary classrooms is quite long and seems even longer when one has arthritis as I do.
The teacher had become ill and there had been no advance warning. When I got to the classroom there were no lesson plans. A search of the files and binders with classwork information in them revealed only lesson plans up until the day before, but nothing for the day I was to substitute.
When the students came in and took their places (reluctantly), I passed around a sign-in sheet and tried to remember various students' names. Then the moment of truth arrived. I had to tell the students what they were to do for the period. Nobody seemed to have any inkling, so I announced that they could 1) Work on classwork or homework for other courses; 2) Catch up on work for this course; 3) Listen to their ipods and relax -- which many of them always want to do, and which doesn't accomplish any learning; or 4) Those who wanted to learn something new could come down to the front of the class and I could tell them about Africa. About four students out of 25 came down, and I began a rambling, but internally connected talk, writing terms on the board as I went along. I told them about the Ivory Coast in West Africa, which I had visited the year before and which I will be returning to in three weeks. I discussed the French colonial capital of Grand Bassam; the yellow fever plague that killed 3/4 of the entire population in the area; the cause of yellow fever; the Kingdom of the N'Zima, which includes Grand Bassam, Southern Cote d'Ivoire, and part of Ghana; the French treatment of the King of the N'zima; the Assima holiday (which I will shortly be photographing); and that other scourge of Africa, malaria. All of this I couched in terms of relevancy for the African-Americans in the group because many of the slaves who were brought to this hemisphere were captured and sent from the N'Zima area. Once we got into malaria, I tried to point out that all things are connected. I asked if anyone knew someone who had sickle cell anemia, explained the difference between the sickle-shaped red blood cell and the normal shaped red blood cell, which can carry more oxygen, and explained that the sickle-shaped red blood cell was an adaptation of Africans that help them be less succeptible to malaria. From there we got into DDT, the near eradication of malaria, the discovery that DDT had enormously bad ecological effects, and the discontinuation of the use of DDT before malaria had been totally conquored. This. of course, is what caused the recurrence of malaria in many areas where it had been thought to have been eliminated. Then I discussed the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.
At least one students actually wrote down the name of the book !
That was about as much as I could accomplish impromptu, so then we all relaxed for 15 minutes before the bell rang.
I had a repeat show with the same material for the second period and some time to relax during the third. Then the fourth period -- American history -- was upon me, again with no lesson plan.
I noticed that some of the students wanted to play "hangman," the game where you write spaces for the letters in an expression and the students guess which letters go where, and slowly piece the sentence together until they properly guess it.
I decided that since this was American history, I should use some sentences about important figures in American history, give some clues, and let them piece together what the sentence was about.
I wrote clues on the board, clues such as "Bang ! Bang ! Blood !" And I set out the outlines of a sentences like this:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, _ _ _. _ _ _ _ _ _ _, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ ?
As the students start guessing letters, what takes shape is: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play ?" And this led us into a short discussion of Lincoln's assassination and John Wilkes Booth, whom most had never heard of.
We also did: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _' _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _." As they guess letters, I told them this was a song lyric, and gave them the hints that it concerned a white male who was strongly anti-slavery, who many people thought was mad, and who was eventually hung. And I added, "Shall we take the ferry, Harper ?"
In case you are wondering, this was "John Brown's body lies amouldering in the grave." So I got to explain some things about who John Brown was, what he did, and his significance.
This sort of thing took me through the fourth period, after which I had lunch, and then through the fifth and sixth period. I was exhausted when I went home. However, it did seem to me that I had managed to do some interesting impromptu songs and dances to get through the day. The next time around, may I PULEEEEZE have lesson plans awaiting me !
The day consisted of two periods of World History, a conference period (in which no students are present, so the teacher can relax and think about what is coming up next), followed by an American History class, lunch (45 minutes), and two more periods of American history.
For starters, these classes were to take place in one of the temporary buildings, and there were no keys to the classroom available. I had to go find a custodian to unlock the classroom. This sounds as though it isn't important, but the walk from where one signs in to the temporary classrooms is quite long and seems even longer when one has arthritis as I do.
The teacher had become ill and there had been no advance warning. When I got to the classroom there were no lesson plans. A search of the files and binders with classwork information in them revealed only lesson plans up until the day before, but nothing for the day I was to substitute.
When the students came in and took their places (reluctantly), I passed around a sign-in sheet and tried to remember various students' names. Then the moment of truth arrived. I had to tell the students what they were to do for the period. Nobody seemed to have any inkling, so I announced that they could 1) Work on classwork or homework for other courses; 2) Catch up on work for this course; 3) Listen to their ipods and relax -- which many of them always want to do, and which doesn't accomplish any learning; or 4) Those who wanted to learn something new could come down to the front of the class and I could tell them about Africa. About four students out of 25 came down, and I began a rambling, but internally connected talk, writing terms on the board as I went along. I told them about the Ivory Coast in West Africa, which I had visited the year before and which I will be returning to in three weeks. I discussed the French colonial capital of Grand Bassam; the yellow fever plague that killed 3/4 of the entire population in the area; the cause of yellow fever; the Kingdom of the N'Zima, which includes Grand Bassam, Southern Cote d'Ivoire, and part of Ghana; the French treatment of the King of the N'zima; the Assima holiday (which I will shortly be photographing); and that other scourge of Africa, malaria. All of this I couched in terms of relevancy for the African-Americans in the group because many of the slaves who were brought to this hemisphere were captured and sent from the N'Zima area. Once we got into malaria, I tried to point out that all things are connected. I asked if anyone knew someone who had sickle cell anemia, explained the difference between the sickle-shaped red blood cell and the normal shaped red blood cell, which can carry more oxygen, and explained that the sickle-shaped red blood cell was an adaptation of Africans that help them be less succeptible to malaria. From there we got into DDT, the near eradication of malaria, the discovery that DDT had enormously bad ecological effects, and the discontinuation of the use of DDT before malaria had been totally conquored. This. of course, is what caused the recurrence of malaria in many areas where it had been thought to have been eliminated. Then I discussed the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.
At least one students actually wrote down the name of the book !
That was about as much as I could accomplish impromptu, so then we all relaxed for 15 minutes before the bell rang.
I had a repeat show with the same material for the second period and some time to relax during the third. Then the fourth period -- American history -- was upon me, again with no lesson plan.
I noticed that some of the students wanted to play "hangman," the game where you write spaces for the letters in an expression and the students guess which letters go where, and slowly piece the sentence together until they properly guess it.
I decided that since this was American history, I should use some sentences about important figures in American history, give some clues, and let them piece together what the sentence was about.
I wrote clues on the board, clues such as "Bang ! Bang ! Blood !" And I set out the outlines of a sentences like this:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, _ _ _. _ _ _ _ _ _ _, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ ?
As the students start guessing letters, what takes shape is: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play ?" And this led us into a short discussion of Lincoln's assassination and John Wilkes Booth, whom most had never heard of.
We also did: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _' _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _." As they guess letters, I told them this was a song lyric, and gave them the hints that it concerned a white male who was strongly anti-slavery, who many people thought was mad, and who was eventually hung. And I added, "Shall we take the ferry, Harper ?"
In case you are wondering, this was "John Brown's body lies amouldering in the grave." So I got to explain some things about who John Brown was, what he did, and his significance.
This sort of thing took me through the fourth period, after which I had lunch, and then through the fifth and sixth period. I was exhausted when I went home. However, it did seem to me that I had managed to do some interesting impromptu songs and dances to get through the day. The next time around, may I PULEEEEZE have lesson plans awaiting me !
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Can This Kid Be Saved ?
I had Trylor in some classes last year (2007-2008), and then again in a class a few days ago. He is an African-American young man, fairly good-looking, very short hair, medium dark complexion, about the average height of the other 12th-grade students. He has a pleasant smiling, even joking demeanor, and doesn't radiate nastiness or bad intentions like some of the students I have met. And he doesn't give the impressioin of someone who is consciously scheming to get over on a substitute. But he is a serious behavior problem.
Traylor's classroom behavior is the problem., He may sit down at his desk for a minute, but thge next thing you know he is out of his seat, wandering around the room, joking and talking with other people. He seems unable to settle down and do any work, and his constant talking with other students prevents them from doing classwork, too.
The number of write-ups he has received is lengthy. These started well before high school, but since he goit to high school they increased. Most are for classroom disturbance or for wandering the halls without a pass.
His family contact information doesn't work. No one answers the phone. Records list a moither or other female parental figure -- an aunt or a grandmother ? -- but whoever this person is, she seems never to be at home. No father is listed.
Traylor's grades are not good -- Ds and Cs at best.
The kicker in all this is that although he is in the eleventh grade, he is old enough to have graduated, but failed to do so. He has repeated one or two years. In a few months he will be 18.
At that point he will undoubtedly not go on to adult school, but will simply drop out. The most frustrating thing is that one senses in him a kid who, if he had been set on the right path, could have achieved a great deal. Now he has before him a life of poverty. And I don't think he understands this.
Traylor's classroom behavior is the problem., He may sit down at his desk for a minute, but thge next thing you know he is out of his seat, wandering around the room, joking and talking with other people. He seems unable to settle down and do any work, and his constant talking with other students prevents them from doing classwork, too.
The number of write-ups he has received is lengthy. These started well before high school, but since he goit to high school they increased. Most are for classroom disturbance or for wandering the halls without a pass.
His family contact information doesn't work. No one answers the phone. Records list a moither or other female parental figure -- an aunt or a grandmother ? -- but whoever this person is, she seems never to be at home. No father is listed.
Traylor's grades are not good -- Ds and Cs at best.
The kicker in all this is that although he is in the eleventh grade, he is old enough to have graduated, but failed to do so. He has repeated one or two years. In a few months he will be 18.
At that point he will undoubtedly not go on to adult school, but will simply drop out. The most frustrating thing is that one senses in him a kid who, if he had been set on the right path, could have achieved a great deal. Now he has before him a life of poverty. And I don't think he understands this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)