some lights seem eternal
in this springtime of hope

I am here to facilitate

August 18, 2004
Today is the two year anniversary of when Golf Widow quit smoking. Go give her page some stats action and some fill up her comments.

Today I have to set up the furniture in my classroom. I have to make that cleanliness happen. There are a couple small problems with this.

First, my desk is huge and the floor is new. I am not going to drag or push it across the room. That would ruin the tiles and the wax job the janitor just put down.

I should ask the janitor to help me move the desk but he is on vacation and will not be back until a week before school starts. When he comes back there will be all the work he did not do while he was gone to complete, playing in my furniture will not be we he needs to do.

A lack of planning on my part has caused an emergency on your part. Sorry, Dilbert, I had to stick it to you. I am half tempted to be hippie teacher this year and tell the kids, �You make up the rules! You arrange the furniture! I am just here to play SIMS; I mean: facilitate your discovery!� I would like all the teachers who use jargon like that to know that I am here to facilitate the biting of my shiny, metal ass.

I love my students but we need to be realistic about what school should and should not be. It should be a place where you learn not only academics but also about to function in the world, in the working place and with other humans. I think it is important for school to also be structured with centralized, Hamiltonian authority.

The biggest problem I have seen with kids in and coming out of school is: self-esteem. No, they do not have too little of it, their self-esteem is over inflated. Part of that problem comes from schools focusing on children in the wrong ways.

We cannot fail students anymore, we cannot hold them back, we cannot tell them they did something poorly. That might hurt them. What would hurt them more, in my estimation is not failing them, holding them back or telling them they did something poorly.

Sure, sometimes you can say, �this could be done better,� or �there is a different answer to that question, too!� It is appropriate to consider the student�s feelings every time you encounter them but it is also important to consider their future, what schools are preparing them for.

In life there are, on occasion, right and wrong answers. There are times where you will hear, �you were wrong.� School is a great place to get used to hearing that so it is not a shock in the real world. How many of us have worked for someone who was a jerk about things? We knew there would be days like this. I have encountered so many students who had never experienced this and get hurt, and then belligerent, when they realize that they are not the center of the universe. Well, at the age I teach if they are told they are wrong and are not used to the idea of being treated like anything less than a tiny god-prince then clearly, I am the idiot.

In life there are also times when people will not bend the rules for you, times when you will have to do what everyone else is doing, how they are doing it, whether you like it or not. Get used to the idea. I am not talking about capitulating to government and corporate malpractice and graft. I am talking about simple things like: putting things in folders, subscribing to arcane filing systems, writing your name at the top left hand corner of your paper (along with the day and assignment), not using the company computer to surf diary land, and not expressing your opinion when ever you feel like it.

Parents and teachers teaching that it is okay to state your opinion and you have a constitutional right to do so: please, teach that correctly. So many of you miss the part about �other people have feelings and a right to their opinion, too.� I battle this every year and have to teach the part of constitutional law where your rights stop where other peoples rights start, in addition to the whole, �we do not elect people based on the popular vote, we have an electoral college and everyone running for President knows this when they enter the race. You can have the most votes and still be the loser.�

Quiz Time

I am:
(a) avoiding going into work (b) encountered Juan�s mother this morning (c) was woken by a demand (that will not be met) from Ulysses parents that he not do book reports this year (d) all of the above

If you guessed (d) then you win and get to take me out for pancakes.

10:18 AM :: 0 comments so far ::
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