Monday, August 23, 2010

This is going to be a good year!

5 comments:

A Paperback Writer said...

Oh, the irony.
I'm smiling.
And did you really get up at 4:00, or did you just schedule this post? I was up at 4:00, as always on a school day.
And from what I've heard about Master Bates lately, things are not looking so bright. sigh. So what else is new, eh?
Best of luck today.....:)

Max Sartin said...

Heck no, I have a lot less hair than you so I don't get up until 5:30.
I'm curious what you've heard about Master Bates, I haven't heard anything either way yet, but I've just been waiting for the you-know=what to hit the fan.

A Paperback Writer said...

I don't do my hair in the morning, silly. I have to wash it at night; it takes way too long to dry. I get up at 4:00 because I have lots of exercises to do (for the back and other stuff that I hope some day will get me to lose a pound or two).
The gossip about Bates is that he's a real stickler for rules and regulations and is very pro having every teacher in each area doing the same thing on the same page in the same book every day. That's bad enough in math, but can you just try to fathom that for English or history or science?
Look, this is what they started doing to Mormon seminary and Sunday School classes about 20 years ago, forcing every teacher across the world (seriously) to teach the lesson right out of the manual on the day it was assigned. The result has been that it's nearly impossible to hear a good lesson anymore because everything must be done as simply as possible, aimed to the lowest skilled teachers out there-- and the good teachers aren't allowed to do anything better. It's like communism in education, forced and unnatural equality. That's what Bates is in favor of, according to local gossip.
If things go the way they look like they're going, I'll be asking you to put in a good word for me at Chevron.

Max Sartin said...

I have no problem with being expected to cover the same stuff each term, with the transiency of our students it sure would help to know what they've covered. But the exact same thing on the exact same day, with no leeway for dealing with things a class may have a real hard time with, that's ludicrous. Even in Math it's absurd. If I understand English curriculum correctly, there are various different vehicles to use to teach the same concepts. Why should you be required to be on the exact same page of the exact same novel each day? So what if a kid wasn't reading the same novel when they transfer into your class, as long as they are getting the right concepts.
Ah ahm escared!

Jeff said...

Yikes. That doesn't actually sound all that far off from what's happening in my school system. Frankly, I find it scary for many reasons.