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Posts 1 - 11 of 11
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Monday, December 26, 2011 A Principal On A Motorcycle? Why? (Part 2) Spiritually speaking: Travels With Charley In Search Of America by John Steinbeck Posted at 10:18 AM (permalink)
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011 Blocking The Hall In Respect Of The Lord...Lord Tebow That Is!Here is yet another example of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario for school administrators. Two twin brothers in a Long Island, NY high school were "suspended" (actually In-School Suspension...though many media reports make it sound like out-of-school) for "Tebowing" in the middle of their school's hallway during a four-minute passing period.
According to the Global Language Monitor, "Tebowing" is now recognized as an official word---defined as “the act of taking a knee in prayer during an athletic contest.” Here is the namesake demonstrating:  credit: bleacherreport.com “They knelt down in the hallway in between periods and made it
impossible to pass,” said Principal David Wicks. “They were causing a
situation that could have been unsafe. God forbid there was an accident
or a fire alarm.” Why the principal justified intervening by pulling the disaster card I'm not sure. The Superintendent was a bit more on target when she said, “This is not about religious discrimination. It is about being sure kids are able to get to class on time and keeping the kids safe and orderly.” The video below is a Fox 5 report. Judge for yourself: Finally: click here for a three-minute Fox interview with the boys that ends with the host exclaiming: "A day's suspension AIN'T all that bad." Posted at 12:17 AM (permalink)
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Friday, December 16, 2011 A Bum Steer Indeed This is the man ultimately responsible for cutting $4 billion dollars from our Texas schools over a two-year period. Across the State...educators have been laid-off, class sizes have increased, programs have been cut, schools have been closed, resources have been squeezed....all while he is double-dipping and hypocritically attacking full-time politicians! Of course, he is still the (self-proclaimed) champion of job creation! I'd rather have Tim Tebow running our State. He doesn't know politics or Texas, but he'd still be an upgrade. And proof that even Texans are scorning this guy in large numbers:  Posted at 7:23 PM (permalink)
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011 Should Professional Educators Be Trusted To Be Professional... Or Must We Protect Young People From Them?There is a widespread traditional practice in education of wiping the slate clean each school year in regard to student discipline. Both the premise and the reasoning are questionable in my mind. While I'm not advocating holding a student responsible for mistakes made the prior year or earlier, I am suggesting that there is value in developing a more complete picture of our students over time. This came up the other day when I was at a top-notch high school in the DFW area meeting with their three assistant principals. We were discussing how valuable it is (dare I say imperative) to have a database that provides a complete, concise discipline history for each student. We all agreed. When I showed them an example of one from Discipline Manager, they loved it and were excited to have this new tool. The rub came, as it often does, when I introduced the "archived" discipline history. At the end of each year discipline records in Discipline Manager are archived and a link to this archive is provided on each student's discipline history page. That way, if a professional with a 'need to know' wanted more context and perspective on a student who is in trouble or struggling in whatever way, they would be able to access the archive to develop a more complete picture. This initiated a discussion of the wisdom of allowing any professional in the school building to see discipline history from the prior year...after all, we hope young people grow over the summer and common wisdom is that they deserve a fresh start each year. We wouldn't want adults in the building to develop negative perceptions of a child based upon behavior predating the current year...the argument is made. In fact, there is often a debate in such discussions whether or not that child's teachers should even be allowed to look at any discipline history on a student...including discipline records from the current year. The fear is that if these professional educators have access to this information they will then develop negative impressions of the child and treat him/her differently as a result. This gets to what I believe is the false premise of this practice of hiding valuable information about a child's development. The false premise is---and if it is not false, it is disturbing---that professional educators who have devoted much of their life to the profession of bettering young people are not professional enough to look at such data without it biasing their image of that developing human being to such a degree that they would treat the young person worse for having been privy to this data. Sadly, it is a widespread conception among educators that some of their colleagues can't be trusted with such insight. For many, the fear of prejudicial thinking outweighs the benefit of the more complete picture one can develop from studying the young person over time. I disagree. A professional educator who cannot look at such data objectively and with an idea to utilize that information solely for the betterment of the child is not very professional at all. This person likely engages in numerous behaviors that harm children. In such a person, their own subjectivity trumps their professional responsibility to remain objective and foster the growth of each child by every means at their disposal. This type of educator has no business working with developing minds and characters. The reasoning for providing a clean slate is also flawed, in my opinion. Professional educators must be professional enough to trust with all data points and other context that help us make the best decisions impacting the young people we are charged with bettering. Otherwise, we cannot do our job (for most of us, our passion) as effectively as we could otherwise. In effect, we are wasting the benefit of seeing patterns and gathering context that can better inform our efforts to better the child. We fear our colleague in the next classroom...and once in a while an educator is even candid enough to admit that they themselves can't be trusted. In other words, they fear their ability to put the best interest of the child ahead of their own biases and preconceptions. I personally have faith in the vast majority of my professional colleagues. I believe that they are better than this less than professional behavior. If not, as principal, I would have kept student "cumulative folders" more securely locked up. After all, these are folders kept in front office file cabinets that contain most of a student's academic, personal, and other information. Teachers access these all the time in most schools. It is encouraged. If I felt teachers on our staff were so unprofessional as to treat a student more poorly as a result of looking at their sensitive information, no teacher would have viewed one of these folders without going through a vetting process appropriate for the untrustworthy and unprofessional. On balance, the value we get from developing a more complete picture of each individual student---including what their discipline history is---MUST outweigh the negative ramifications of the tiny minority that can't escape their biases and prejudices enough to make professional decisions in the best interests of each and every young person in the school. Do you trust the educators you work with or deal with? Do you trust yourself? Shouldn't educators strive to understand the whole child, not merely the child in a sliver of time? Are educators professional enough to deserve the title of professional educator? I want to trust so. Posted at 11:05 PM (permalink)
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Monday, December 12, 2011 Rebuilding The Arsenal Of Democracy: A Post About The Message...Not The MessengerJon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich are arguably the two deepest thinkers in the current Republican presidential field. I disagree with each of them on many points, but at least they are both thinking and articulating beyond mere talking points. Below I offer two short video clips from today's debate because I believe they are powerful statements irrespective of which political party and candidate one favors. 1) Newt warns against us being "domestically stupid" before going on to give an example that (according to a study he was part of) "the second greatest threat to the United States in the next 25 years is failure to modernize our education and invest in math and science and technology." He refers to it as "rebuilding the arsenal of Democracy."
2) This debate was very loosely formatted on the Lincoln-Douglas debate model...basically because they both actually had minutes at a time to answer questions---rather than seconds---and they did so by addressing the issues deeply without resorting to personal attacks. In his closing statement, Newt suggests what a joke our electoral process has become. He characterizes it as "thirty-second sound bites" and "gotcha moments" more like a Hollywood game or a reality show than like reality. I couldn't agree more! He calls for an electoral process that is:
Most of us agree our electoral system is broken. The process is flawed. We have degenerated to near Idiocracy.
Fundamental change in the U.S. electoral process is needed.
Posted at 8:44 PM (permalink)
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Friday, December 9, 2011 Education Ride 365: The Most Ambitious Journey Of Them AllSome might call it a midlife crisis! I am calling it the journey of a lifetime! But more on that later. I've been on many journeys over the years. A few of my favorites include:
The most epic journey awaits! After all, there are quite a few states and all of Canada that my motorcycle has never met...and I have some questions about education that only America can answer! 2012--->here we come! Posted at 8:07 PM (permalink)
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011 A Principal On A Motorcycle? Why? (Part 1)Philosophically speaking: "You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness." Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig Posted at 9:17 PM (permalink)
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Monday, December 5, 2011 Breaking News: Reporting The Story Before The Story Is KnownThe video below is proof of how easy it can be for potentially questionable decisions made in school to end up on national television. The teacher---Ms. Terry--- is even named by the parent. Host: "Who is the victim, did they even tell you?" Mom: "No, no, of course not." This video story struck me as hasty, incomplete, and insufficient reporting for a nationally spotlit local school decision. Kinda scary. Good documentation is part of an educator's self-protection plan! Posted at 10:11 PM (permalink)
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Sunday, December 4, 2011 Libraries, The Gift That Keeps Giving! Posted at 9:19 PM (permalink)
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Saturday, December 3, 2011 Santa Missing Instructional Time In Some DistrictsA great deal of fuss is being made about what seems to be a fairly sound decision by the Fort Worth Independent School District. It is yet another example of one of those "damned if you do; damned if you don't" scenarios for school administrators. 'God was kicked out of school years ago...and now they are kicking out Santa.' This assessment is widely expressed by those critical of FWISD and other districts struggling with how to respond to this prickly dilemma. Lost in the emotionalism of it all is the most basic, almost irrefutable justification for the decision. Simply, in this age of heightened accountability, instruction should be maximized during scheduled academic time. The public is crying out for schools that better prepare our children and equip them for global competitiveness. We ask teachers to conduct rich, bell-to-bell lessons. Accountability is high for all involved. Can we really afford to use instructional time for gift giving and parties? Regarding FWISD's statement, NBCDFW reported: What that means is that students will not be allowed to exchange gifts
or distribute personal holiday messages during class this year. But the
district isn't stopping the spread of Christmas cheer outside of
instructional hours. Students can still exchange gifts before and after
school, and classroom parties are allowed if they are for "instructional
purposes." Incidentally----> the bar for proving that a party is for "instructional purposes" tends to be very low...particularly around the holidays! FWISD offered a two-part justification for their decision. Specifically: According to district spokesperson Clint Bond the reasons for that are
twofold: Classroom time should be reserved for learning and the district
doesn't want to alienate non-Christian students. I applaud FWISD for honestly presenting both actual justifications for their decision. After all, safeguarding instructional time is an easy battle to fight, while safeguarding the rights of minority opinion versus majority, traditional practice is fraught with danger. They seem to have addressed the matter head-on. FWISD Interim Superintendent Walter Dansby wrote in a news release on Friday: "Santa Claus is welcome to visit our schools. He can be in the lobby.
He can be in the cafeteria. He can be in the auditorium. He can be in
the school, outside the school, around the school. But he cannot visit
the classroom while the teacher is teaching." Click here for the full story at NBCDFW Posted at 7:53 PM (permalink)
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Thursday, December 1, 2011 Texas School Funding Update: The Fight ContinuesThe fight goes on to force Texas lawmakers to reform school funding and reassess the current two-year budget slash. 1) Structural Problem: The current system is simply not equitable. Example Frisco ISD 2) Funding Cut Problem: $2 billion less; 68,000 more
Little Elm ISD (neighboring district to Frisco ISD)
There is also a fight to get lawmakers to adequately fund a school system that is suffering through $4 billion in cuts over this two year budget cycle ---even though 68,000 new students will be added to the system over these two years. Over a hundred school districts in Texas are in the courts challenging legislative cuts and/or the school financing process. Plano ISD joined the fight a few days ago. See the video below by NBCDFW for more on this fight for proper education funding. |