Let's Make a Deal

OK campers, the natives are restless and we are making our way to the home stretch. The hot topic around the virtual cooler is what to do with the kids who have already decided to check out? You know the ones that the not so all wise counselor decided to tell them with a month left in school that the stand a snowballs chance in hell of graduating and walking the stage. The parents send them to school because they can't afford a big-babysitter.  I myself try the Let's Make a Deal Approach because the object is to get them to learn as much as they can and are willing to learn.

If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

What's the Big Deal?

It's approaching graduation time again. Apparently it is also the time of year when a few people show their lack of tolerance and demand that students should not be forced to hold a graduation in a rented out church sanctuary. Really? This is embarrassing to me as an educator. What's the big deal? No one is asking them to recite the apostles creed or come down and say the sinner's prayer. 

To not allow students the option of using a church is to send a message to people of faith that there is something negative attached to there beliefs.  That would also be an exercise of government control to not allow schools to use a church. 

One year I attended several district trainings held at Mosque. No big deal. I did not find it the least bit oppressive. What I have found oppressive is the constant barrage of political blather from my union, from district presenters at trainings, from fellow teachers at PD and from the media. I hear talk about teaching our students tolerance. Where is the tolerance in not allowing students to hold a graduation in a church or a mosque or on the football field?