The Right or Privilege of Instructional Time

If you're a teacher you know this no-win scenario all too well. If you're a parent, it's what you can't image a school would allow to be inflicted upon students in their care, specifically your child. It is the latest policy of a district in a death spiral. No student should be denied instructional time. 

The theory is that no student should be denied access to instruction. Therefore disruptive students can not be sent out of classrooms. This of course includes student's with physical disabilities. Students with cognitive disabilities have a right to mainstream classrooms too. Now, the kicker, students with behavior issues, no matter how severe, have a right to access all instructional time. The result of these policies is that all children, no matter what their issues may be are placed into a room together.

The reality is that some students learn best in different environments and some students flat out refuse to learn. Student's with disabilities are now being thrown into larger classrooms even if that means that they receive less actual access to the curriculum in a mainstream classroom. All in the name of "least restrictive environment". When least restrictive makes learning least effective, it's just another dumb idea that no one has the guts to say, "Hey, boss, I don't think that's going to work." The real problems start when entire classrooms are held captive to the clowns, the terrorists and the thieves that populate classrooms and teachers are left without recourse to defend their teaching time or the students they sincerely want to teach. My fellow teachers and I were actually told that we can not send a student out of the class unless, according the the California Education Code, it is a suspendable offense! The reality is no one leaves the room unless they are going to be suspended!

Do students who are obstinate have a right to learn when they feel like it and act however they want to without repercussions? I don't think they have a right to make other students  endure their clowning, terrorizing and stealing behavior. If a student refuses to learn and chooses to talk and play around teachers and teachers are left without any real recourse and the result is that the rest of the students suffer the real loss of instructional time. These students are a cancer and in my view thieves who are taught to disregard others and rewarded for their selfish behavior by not being punished quickly and with brutal severity. Their parents should be punished too. But, I find that the blockhead doesn't usually fall far from the cliff, so trying to deal with them and their child is like beating your head between two brick walls. 

An education is not a right, it is a privilege and as soon as you call it a right you start down the slippery slow of valuing the rights of an individual over the rights not of the group but every other individual. That of course is lunacy. Trying to teach in a classroom where the right of a child to act out as they please is more valued than the right to learn without being harassed is stupid beyond belief. Yet, it is happening in classrooms everyday.    

Open Letter to Teachers

Just an open letter to my teacher colleagues. Just what has Jerry Brown done for you? How is furlough days and less doing us a favor?  

How about asking what the great Barrack Obama has done for you? O sure he threw some money at education to "save jobs", but it didn't stop kids from leaving the state, thus the district and of course your school. Less students = less teachers. 

So, my question is: What has either Democrat done for education, really? 

A leader or a louse?

Today I had the joy of sitting through a Professional Development designed to help teachers. I was reminded of a present my wife and I received for our wedding. The givers had forgotten to take their names still on it. The classic re-gifting. Well, the more that things change, the more they stay the same. 

I could take the repackaging of some old ideas. What I found really hard to take was the five minute video pep talk from the District Superintendent. First of all the cold forced smile. Never trust someone who smiles too much. How do you respect someone who admittedly falsified information on their resume? How can you listen to someone who is threatening to cut your pay via furlough days by another 20 days? 

The nerve to mention that older teachers might have lost their fire and that some re-do of old ideas on a "guide" would help. Cutting pay takes away desire. Adding layers of administrative fat on the district level while siphoning funds from schools sites by reducing staff (clerical, teaching, administrative and maintenance) and then suggesting that teachers take a pay cut is diabolical. But, with a School Board with more a severe shortage on personal integrity but obviously not on calorie intake, what do I expect. 

I don't even think I can string together a coherent string of thoughts to express the disdain, contempt and anger I have towards the nepotistic self absorbed fools that choose leaders like drunk monkeys throwing darts.

Can anyone make sense of the state of education? Tell me what you think.

Just Set the Bar Lower

Last week, my school, like all the others in the great state of California, participated in the Great Shake disaster drill. All went well. The administrator over the drill announced that it was highly successful. Really?

Two thoughts. One: AW Tozer said that the worst form of deception is self-deception. True indeed. Two: If you set the bar low enough, anyone can jump over it. 

Here's the deal: I was over said event at one time and I, like all of us participating who have been involved as members in different capacities, realize that a lot of details were completely glossed over and ignored. For example, several members were new to our school or to being an emergency team member. They were supposed to practice going to assigned areas and check rooms to see if they were clear or some one needed assistance. No, all we did was sign in at the "command post" and call it even. 

I have been in education 22 years and been at several schools and an evaluation sheet is filled out by every teacher and staff member after every drill. Not this one. The administrator in charge ipso facto declared the drill highly successful. Heaven help us all in the case of a real emergency.

Little Help Please

I taught an intervention class this morning. It's amazing how much some students are NOT understanding in their regular classes.

Off the Hook

It's spring time baby and the kids have gone wild! Love, inhalants and just plain foolishness are the order of the day. It's a good thing "the district" is cutting deans and counselors.

The Dumpster

We all have worked with at least one. You know, the administrator who fancies themselves as a very affective delagator. I work with a friend who truely believes he is a great, not good, a great delegater. He dumps without explanation, warning, or discernable reason.

Sometimes, because of the ability and competance of those he dumps on, myself, the coordinators and counselors, things work out.  If we don't understand his signals...he discribes us as incompetent.
Frankly, he's great with numbers but awful with people.