What Every American Needs

If you're at a loose end for that perfect Christmas gift, you can now buy your very own Batmobile.  It'll set you back about 192K, but there's some good news--delivery is free.

If you're a real reformer, you can use it to clean up all the jokers at Tweed.  Or you could chase down corporate criminals, doubtless impressing them with the fact your car is just as expensive as theirs is.

It's my understanding every member of the Cathie Black selection panel received one as a gesture of good faith from Mayor Bloomberg.  Full disclosure--panel members are not constrained by the five-dollar limit Chancellor Klein imposed on gifts for city teachers.

Note:  An astute reader points out, for bargain hunters, you can buy one here for a trifling 150K.

It's Party Time!

I went to the Gotham Schools party night before last.  There were some really interesting people there.  I got to speak to several prominent charter school enthusiasts and not one threw a chair at me.  In that spirit, I didn't throw chairs at them either.  I saw Norm Scott there, who'd actually hugged Joel Klein  the previous evening (the things we go through to get people to read blogs).  Several teacher acquaintances of mine advised him to get in the shower and wash his whole body with Brillo pads, but he declined.

Jose Vilson, writer of The Jose Vilson, did not show up.  Nor did Diane Ravitch.  Doug Lemov was there, though, and regaled us with tales of model teaching from his book.  He had video of a teacher showing kids how to pass out papers, and explained that passing out papers this way took only one minute.  He claimed it usually took five (Really?), and that this method saved four minutes a day, 20 a week, 80 a month, and 800 a year, or something like that, providing over a full day of extra instructional time.  I save even more time by not passing out papers every day.  I make booklets of two-sided copies well in advance and have kids bring them daily.  But I'm just a public school teacher, so what could I possibly know?

Lemov then showed us a classroom in which a young woman had a routine to move her kids from one section of her classroom, where they had desks, to another, where they sat on the floor.  The students chanted an educational song as they moved, and got very efficiently from one side to the other.  Personally, I was amazed they had all that space, as I have never, ever had two places to teach.  (I count myself lucky when I have one.)  Lemov proudly explained that there was no fighting or pushing. Clearly, when you eliminate all that bothersome social interaction, that is one result.  It was certainly a step up from Michelle Rhee's innovative practice of taping kids' mouths shut.  Still, I'm glad my kid wasn't in a class like that. 

The surprise guest, AFT President Randi Weingarten, then got up and asked why we couldn't all just get along.  Everyone was always vilifying everyone else and it wasn't nice, and wouldn't the world be better if everyone were nicer?  Public schools, charter schools, union teachers, non-union teachers--why can't we be one big happy family?  Doubtless Guggenheim would never have made the union-bashing propaganda film, and the hedge fund zillionaires would never have funded it if Ms. Weingarten had only confronted them with such stark and irrefutable logic beforehand.

It wasn't quite the fireworks of last year, with Diane Ravitch speaking after Joel Klein.  But I love going to places like the Gotham party, and being surrounded by people as focused on education as I am.  I love talking with smart people, even if I don't agree with them at all. Speakers notwithstanding, the guests made it a great party and each and every person reading this should have been there. 

Next year I hope they bring back Diane Ravitch.   They can always find someone to say whatever Klein would have said.  Perhaps by then Chancellor what's-her-name will be allowed out unescorted.  Maybe she can explain how putting "Children First" entails firing thousands of their teachers, even as Tweed has consistently failed to deal with rampant overcrowding or outrageous class sizes.  Perhaps when she's up to speed, she can explain what Mayor Bloomberg did with the billion dollars he took to deal with that issue.

Patience? REALLY?

You know, as I wrote here last week, I'm trying hard to resist jumping on the anti-Cathie Black bandwagon. As of my last writing on the subject, I knew almost nothing about the woman and was loath to judge her too harshly, or indeed at all, before I had any actions or statements beyond the usual generics on which to judge.

But one thing that made me go, a la Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers on Saturday Night Live, "REALLY?" was Ms. Black's plea for "patience" as she gets up to speed on, uh, schools, I guess. So much so that I'm going to have a word with Ms. Black here, personally.

REALLY, Ms. Black? You're a sexagenarian business mogul and best-selling author whose management experience is so vaunted and legendary that you're being asked, despite no experience with schools, to manage the largest school system in the country? And you need "patience"? REALLY? Joshua Greenman of the Daily News pointed out the absurdity of this request already, but I still can't get over it.

You know, I started teaching in the city schools when I was 23 and my first posting was deep in the heart of a restructuring high school with some very tough (lovable, yes, eventually, but tough!) children. And there was no patience for Miss Eyre. I mean, don't cry for me; clearly I survived and I think I would say that today I am thriving. But it's taken me my probationary years and then some to get to the point where I can fairly and accurately call myself a good and thriving teacher. Yet I can't say anyone was especially patient with me. Those kids were my responsibility from Day One, lack of experience (of any kind) be damned. That's how it is in education.

So, REALLY?, Ms. Black? Are you ready to give teachers the kind of patience and understanding for which you plead right now? Because, if you are, then maybe I can cut you the same slack. But if not, you can guess my response.

(If you're unfamiliar with Seth and Amy doing their "REALLY?" bit, here's a clip.)

What's Your Favorite Fruit?

That was the question in my beginning ESL class yesterday.

"Apples," said the first kid I asked.  Ask her, I told him, pointing to a girl in front.

"What's your favorite fruit?" he asked her.

"Chocolate," she replied without hesitation.

"Chocolate's not a fruit," I told her.

"What is it?" she demanded.

"Chocolate is chocolate," I replied, authoritatively.  "Actually I think it's a bean."

"I don't like beans," she replied.  "Are tomatoes fruit?  I like tomatoes."

"Well, yes they are, technically.  But most people think they're vegetables."

"I don't understand," she said.

"Neither do I," I admitted.   "Ask him, please."

She turned to the boy on the other side of the room.

"What's your favorite fruit?" she asked.

"Hamburgers," he replied.

Fiction about Teachers

And I'm not talking novels here. No, I'm talking about those rumors about teachers that seem to start out of nowhere and reify infinitely in the popular imagination.

One of my great guilty pleasures in life is advice columns, and Slate's Dear Prudence often has just the right amount of smh-ing, schadenfreude, and other assorted train wreckage to brighten my Mondays and Thursdays. Today, for example, an anxious parent asked Prudie what would happen if s/he (the parent) did not buy his/her child's teacher a gift for Christmas.

Well, I'm a teacher. Let me tell you what will happen.

NOTHING.

That's right. NOTHING.

Don't get me wrong. I cherish the gifts I receive from students, and their handwritten notes and cards mean the world to me. I save every last one of them because I am a sentimental hoarder. But some children and parents simply don't give gifts. It's certainly not my place to speculate why, and even less my place to treat a child differently because he or she does not give a gift. This is not rocket science or even good teaching. I assumed that this was simply GOOD MANNERS.

How does this stuff get started, that teachers treat kids who don't give them gifts differently? Are we really the guilty ones on this? Do you have colleagues whose lives are so empty and devoid of meaning that they need a Whitman's Sampler from a twelve-year-old's parents to make them feel better, and if they don't receive it, they will take their deep-seated personal issues out on the unfortunate preteen(s) involved?

I am tempted to simply file this one alongside other teacher fiction, like "The teacher threw out my paper, even though the papers of my twenty-seven classmates are all present and accounted for, because s/he hates me" and "Teachers come to work at eight, leave at three, and never work weekends, holidays, or summers." But I do wonder where this stuff comes from.

And if you're guilty...Miss Eyre is looking for you!

Ms. Black Gives a Pep Talk

It's pretty clear to me the Mayor hired me to enact my business theories.  When there are layoffs, companies have to do more with less.  In New York City,  I'm poised to take over an inefficient company.  There are simply too many employees, and product is not always of the best quality.  For example, we have a lot of teachers, and their product often takes more than four years before it appears on the shelves, or what do they call it?  Graduate?

Well, under my administration, we're going to shoot toward having appealing product ready in three years.  That will cut production costs by 25%, a savings we can pass on to stockholders.  It's unacceptable to raise taxes on our high-earning stockholders like the mayor and Whitney Tilson, who keep their eye on the bottom line

Employees who wish to stay on will have to become indispensable.  Who's that person raising his hand, saying, "I'll teach that extra class," or "I'll add a dozen extra products to my workstation."  That's the sort of employee who brings value to the system, and we need to capitalize on attitudes like that.  Who will come in early and bring the principal a newspaper, a cup of coffee, or a hooker?  Who will stay after and paint that room, or fix that boiler for the sake of the company?

Second, you have to have a good attitude.  Let's dispense with all these grievances, sick days and related nonsense and get employees to get that product out.  I hear, in some schools, 50% or more of product is not getting out.  Those offices are not producing and have to be closed.  It's important to turn out as much quality product as possible, and we can't hold onto those who are gonna whine and moan, oh, the product wasn't prepared, is missing parts, or doesn't function properly.  Ask yourself, how can I get the product ready and onto the shelves, where it can be useful to consumers.  I want our product out there being used, whether it be in retail, in offices, or whatever.  I want Bill Gates to say, wow, that's a lot of product we're getting in New York City

Finally, you have to be seen.  Mayor Bloomberg is very busy, doing whatever he does in that office, and we need the employees out there showing how much they want to produce for him.  I want to read how happy they are, how they love pushing out product, how they can't wait to increase production by 18%, or whatever goal we've selected.  I want them to stop whining, "Oh, everyone else got a contract, why can't I have one?"  That's juvenile.  If you can push 40% more product, then maybe I'll give you that raise.  It's a new paradigm here, and I want to see employees first in, last out, giving everything they can so the company will produce.

Sure, people feel bad when you close down an office.  But you have to put the best face on it possible.  No one wants to see 50 empty desks.  That's why we'll move out the desks, or bring in someone who can move quality product.  Pretty soon everyone will be focused on increasing production, and we'll be pushing more product than any major city.  That's why they brought me in, and that's what I'm gonna do.

We'll do whatever it takes to get that product out there.

Mr. Gates Gives a Pep Talk

Here's the subtext of what he told the AFT Convention:

Not to Be Missed

A little toe-tapper about new chancellor what's-her-name.

Baby, Baby, Baby, Ohhhhh....

Man, if I hear that song one more time I will puke.  My kid sings it, my students sing it, and I treasure every moment I don't have to hear it.  The Onion reveals Justin Bieber to be a 51-year-old pervert.  Those of us who've listened to enough Bieber need not consider the source...you know what I'm talking about...


Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile

On Becoming a Conspiracy Theorist

 Over at Public School Parents Blog, Steve Koss makes some very interesting points:

Consider first that Ms. Black's prior education credentials, as now being reported in the New York Times, appear to consist of having once attended a mentor day with Michelle Obama at a Detroit school, and having once been the figurehead "principal for a day" at a Bronx school. Add to this the fact that she just joined the HVA National Leadership Board "a few months ago" and has yet to actually attend any meetings. Throw on top of that the information that the co-chair of this advisory board (along with singer John Legend) is Rupert Murdoch, a multi-million-dollar contributor to HVA, and top it all off with the announcement that Joel Klein is taking an education industry, strategy-related position at Murdoch's News Corporation.

Now this is clearly remarkable.  Can you imagine getting a job in an industry based on your membership in an organization whose meetings you didn't even attend?  Koss has me thinking there.  He loses me, though, when he says this:

This writer is not given to conspiracy theories in general, but the timing and interconnectedness of it all, added to Mayor Bloomberg's disturbing secrecy in acting seemingly entirely on his own, to fill a VERY public position, certainly generates some interesting questions and intriguing possibilities.

I know a few people who embrace conspiracy theories, and I'm afraid Koss is a rank amateur.  First of all, for a conspiracy theory, this is not nearly far-flung enough.  There doesn't seem to be anything attributable to mere coincidence.  It's almost like someone gives their kid a job, you label it nepotism, and call yourself a conspiracy theorist. Does that, in itself, earn you the title?

Frankly, I'd say Koss needs work if he want to establish conspiracy theories.  For example, if he wanted to work out a good one in this case, he'd start from the premise that Ms. Black is qualified to run the largest school system in the country.

That could certainly form the basis for some wild-eyed theory, and some people are doing a good job putting out just such theories.  For example, Mayor Bloomberg spun a real doozy of a tale about an extensive search for an appropriate candidate, a tale no one seems able to verify.  Now I'll admit that, since it appears the Mayor sought the council of no one and simply did whatever the hell he felt like doing, it doesn't seem much of a conspiracy.  But the story, at least, has no evidence whatsoever to support it, an important starting point if you want serious consideration as a conspiracy theorist.

As things stand, I'd have to say Koss' story is far too much credible to label him a conspiracy theorist.   Perhaps he should start from scratch.  Otherwise, I'd have to advise him he's utterly unsuited for the conspiracy theory racket and advise him, with all seriousness, to simply keep his day job.

Truth be told, making Koss a conspiracy theorist would be as ridiculous as, oh, making a magazine executive Chancellor of NYC Schools.

Ten Totally Snark-Free (Really) Questions for Cathie Black

I was chatting with Mr. Eyre this evening about the new schools chancellor, Ms. Cathie Black, and the news conference in which she was warmly welcomed yesterday. Being the big-hearted person that I am, I stated that I would be withholding judgment on Ms. Black for the time being. Yes, she has no experience as an educator, but Lincoln didn't have any experience as a President either, and that turned out all right. Sure, I would have preferred someone with some meaty education experience. But I'll probably have plenty of time to grow to dislike her later if she turns out to be more of the same, so for right now, I'm going to listen.

And ask some totally snark-free (I MEAN IT) questions.

Here's what I'd ask Cathie Black if I could:

1.) Coming from a competitive industry like publishing, you surely understand the value of equipping your employees with the best and most complete tools to get the job done. How will you improve the business practices of NYCDOE around contracting for technology and supplies to ensure that no teacher has to buy her own supplies for the job, from chalk to iPads?

2.) As the first female leader of the NYC schools, you might better understand the problems faced by working parents, both among your employees and the parents of your students. How will you make the DOE more responsive to parents, and expand the family-friendliness of the teaching profession for your employees? (Hint: PAID PARENTAL LEAVE)

3.) In these tough economic times, will you be able to say no to sweetheart contracts and cut loose or greatly reduce expensive boondoggles like ARIS?

4.) Since this is your first time working directly with a public union, what is your opinion of unions in general and the teachers' union in particular? Are you prejudiced from the outset, as Klein made himself out to be, or are you willing to listen to and consider the union's concerns?

5.) What will you do to enrich the diversity of the city's most elite public high schools, which are still dominated by white and Asian students?

6.) Do you believe in the idea of "neighborhood schools"; that is, if parents wish their children to stay close to home, that they should have quality educational options within walking or a short bus ride's distance?

7.) What will you do to ensure the continuity of after-school programs, sports, and arts offerings as budget cuts go even deeper?

8.) What is your position on the Common Core movement?

9.) What will you do to help schools and teachers prepare students for all kinds of success after high school--college, quality careers, the military, and family life?

10.) Finally, although a great deal of lip service has been paid to the professionalism of teachers, it seems that no one trusts us to make very many important decisions. Access to databases, supplies, curricular materials, etc. are often limited to the point of being unnavigable for the average teacher. What will you do to empower teachers to get their jobs done swiftly and powerfully, with a minimum of hassle on all fronts?

If Ms. Black was answering these questions, I would at this point thank her graciously for her time. Really.

Your thoughts? Feel free to add them, or your own questions, in the comments.

Cut One Head Off, and Another Grows

The resignation and rapid replacement of NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is surprising, but likely not meaningful.  Frankly, even with him selling whatever remaining shreds of integrity he may have to Rupert Murdoch, the Post can't really get any worse. More to the point, Mayor Bloomberg approved of Klein, and approves his replacement, what's-her-name (who probably attended school sometime, somewhere and is therefore qualified to run the nation's largest school system).  The likelihood of any change in policy hovers around nil.

Sure, we won't have Joel Klein to kick around anymore, but he's hanging around until the end of the year, to offer guidance to the newest non-educator handpicked by the richest man in New York City to run schools his kids would not attend on a bet.  The new chancellor's kids were educated in private boarding schools, so it makes perfect sense.  Yet another person running schools not good enough for her family to patronize.

Here's what it means for teachers--nothing whatsoever.  The idiotic baseless policies Bloomberg loves will continue.  Bill Gates will continue to decide what's good for 1.1 million schoolchildren, and the pointless and demoralizing school closings will continue as planned.  The baseless value-added nonsense will be pushed by a new chancellor with no education experience, and the pipe dreams and silver bullets that typify the plans of this administration will go on unabated.

In short, meet the new boss, same as the old boss, now with more hair but spouting the same absurdities.

Custodians Are Not Overpaid (Well, Maybe a Little, But Still)

Oh, the Post. Apparently Rupert Murdoch believes that only hedge fund managers and himself are entitled to make comfortable wages, ones that might allow them to support a family on less than, say, 80 hours a week. Since teachers have finally proven their collective worth by holding a car wash on a weekend to pay for lost supplies, Murdoch's minions had to find a new target: school custodians.

Don't get me wrong. I do think it's sort of crazy that custodial engineer pay maxes out at higher than the max pay for teachers. And maybe the overtime is a little out of control. But the answer is to pay teachers more, not pay custodial engineers less.

First of all, the actual custodial engineers are not pushing brooms around. They are in charge of keeping complicated systems running smoothly around the clock, stuff that you and I probably don't even think about: kitchen equipment, elevators, boilers, fire alarms, plumbing...the list goes on. They are in charge of the physical plant at a school and answerable only to a principal. It's a job with serious responsibility that should be compensated accordingly.

But the the ladies and gentlemen who do push the brooms around should make decent money, too. So should the checkers at the grocery store and the truck drivers and the fry cooks. Somewhere along the line in this country, we lost the belief in the idea that someone who works at an honest full-time job shouldn't be poor and shouldn't have to work another one to make ends meet. I feel like, once upon a time, we believed that. But anyway, maybe I've just been spoiled, but the janitors at my old school in particular were some of the nicest and most helpful people I worked with. One of them would help me move furniture and organize stuff after school, which was definitely not in his job description. They go above and beyond just like we do. To me, that's worth something; namely, money.

You know who's overpaid? Rupert Murdoch.

Take the Jamaica Challenge...

...if you dare, at the ICE-UFT blog.

Bedbugs First

Even as the full-force propaganda war against unionized teachers marches on, those at PS 197 are taking matters into their own hands.  Because of extermination procedures, they ended up losing schoolbooks and other supplies. 

While the Tweedies hem, haw, and scratch their overpaid, non-educator craniums, the teachers have taken action, running a weekend carwash to raise money to replace them.  They don't have time to wait for results of some idiotic study or drawn out investigation because their kids need help, and they need it now.

In case it's not yet clear to anyone reading this, these unionized teachers clearly put children first, unlike the pencil-pushing bureaucrats ostensibly in charge of the school system.  Doubtless most readers of this blog know that already.  What would it take for the general public to find out that gazillionaires like Bill Gates and the Wal-Mart family haven't got a clue as to what really goes on in public schools?

A tsunami?  Can we point it toward Tweed, please?

Illustration by David Bellel

Kleinthink

Over at Perdido Street School, they're pointing out that Klein's DOE wants to release names of teachers and their value-added scores.  According to them, the public has a right to that info.

Odd then, that they don't want to release the names of schools infested with bedbugs.  According to them, it isn't a problem because schools contain very few beds.

S Is for Simpleton

The school grades are out again.  Naturally, they cover only one year rather than multiple years, so there's no allowance for ebb and flow.  Elite schools get Bs, and less desirable schools get Bs too.  And schools that get low grades are simply closed, because schools cannot possibly be improved and must be destroyed with extreme prejudice.  Then they're broken up into four or five academies, with all new kids, and if one should do well, it's absolute proof that Chancellor Klein is a genius.

But it's not all the work of Chancellor Klein, as all closures need the approval of the important Panel for Educational Policy.  This vital group was created to replace the often dysfunctional Board of Education.  To improve the unreliable Board, the mayor gets 8 of 13 appointees, and any one that doesn't vote the way he wants is fired before the vote takes place.  In Mayor Bloomberg's eyes, apparently, that represents democracy.

To make sure everything is on the up and up, 85% of a schools letter grade is based on scores.  That way, no one will be favorably prejudiced by your champion football team, or the fact that you take on a disproportionate number of special ed. or ESL students.  And to be fair, you get compared directly against academies and charter schools that have few or no such students, let alone those with truly extraordinary needs.  Kids like those are dumped into the remaining large schools so that they can be closed with all due haste.  We need to charterize, privatize, and small size-ize ASAP.

And then when the new schools stink, we'll just close them too and ship the kids somewhere else.

And no matter what happens, no matter how many test gains fade into nothingness, neither Michael Bloomberg nor Joel Klein will be accountable for a single solitary shred of their utter failure to improve New York City schools.

It's Report Card Time...

...for children and grown-ups alike. As you probably know, the high school "report cards" were released yesterday by the DOE. There was much celebrating at TMS2, where the grade was an A. But, as usual, I'm uncomfortable with the release of the school report cards for a couple of reasons.

First of all, check out this InsideSchools story about the report card release. It highlights some interesting tidbits from the progress reports, like the fact that the top five schools are all small schools founded under Klein's chancellorship. Schools like Bard and Stuyvesant find themselves ranking lower than schools that have less of what we might call traditional academic success. I'm not saying that progress with the neediest students doesn't count; it does, and it should count for a lot. But the report cards, as they stand, remain counterintuitive and confusing to many people, including parents, because of their heavy emphasis on "student progress" (as measured by only a few factors) to the exclusion of that which is more difficult to measure.

The comments on the InsideSchools story tell you a lot. As one parent suggests, "if they're going to give schools 'report cards,' then they should be like REAL report cards, with grades in several categories." The parent goes on to suggest that, in addition to the current categories, the schools should be graded by subject area so parents can easily see, for example, credit accumulation and Regents scores by subject. It's only one suggestion, and a debatable one, but still, change certainly seems to be in order. If the comments at InsideSchools are any indication, parents as much as teachers can be confused and dismayed by what they see on the Progress Reports.

So I'm not getting too worked up about the A. I'm not sure if it stands for what I think it should, or tells me or anyone what we really need to know about schools. We'll see if any changes are afoot, though I'm not going to hold my breath.

Who's Burying the UFT?

There's an interesting piece in the Daily News speculating as to the erosion of power in the UFT. Ironically, it shows UFT President Mulgrew with John Liu, likely as not elected as a direct result of the UFT's help.  (And I'm reading that UFT-supported Tony Avella won, too, coming back from over 20 points behind, so people may think twice about our demise.)

The UFT is far from dead, but its leadership, particularly ex-President Randi Weingarten, has not been able to refrain from weakening it since Mayor Mike got in.

They supported mayoral control, an unmitigated disaster for teachers and union, and then supported it again come renewal time. Aside from earning the admiration or teacher-bashers like Rod Paige for Ms. Weingarten, I fail to see the upside in that. Mayoral control as practiced here amounts to dictatorship. Though voices like Patrick Sullivan add spice to the PEP, they're essentially a rubber stamp. Its majority are mayoral appointees subject to being fired if they dissent.

Last year, the UFT failed to step up and oppose Mayor Bloomberg.  This was an egregious error.  There's not one iota of gratitude in this man for our neutrality, and had we taken the bold stand of opposing him, we might have someone less hostile in City Hall.  

UFT leadership supported a contract in 2005 that gave away absolutely every professional gain city teachers had made since I started in 1984. They stood firm against value-added, then supported it becoming part of state-mandated evaluation. They participated in a value-added study with Bill Gates, saying it was vital we be part of that conversation, and then helped negotiate a value-added rating system before the study had concluded.

I've seen Randi Weingarten in action, quick on her feet when she visited my school. It was abundantly clear she was the smartest person the room, which makes me scratch my head every time I see yet another lackluster media performance from her. Then, she invites Bill Gates to be keynote speaker at her convention, and not only encourages but also participates in ridiculing working teachers who don't appreciate the self-styled education expert.  Union hacks preached it was smart to engage our opponents.

Of course, it's wise to engage your opponents.  Talk to them.  Try to make them see the light.  But Bill Gates is an enemy of public education, constantly spouting ideas that have no basis in research.  While they delight his corporate buddies like Eli Broad and the Wal-Mart family, they benefit neither working people nor their children.  You don't see GW Bush giving the keynote at the Democratic convention, and you shouldn't see the biggest "reformer" in the nation addressing the AFT either.

If we're dying, we have no one to blame but ourselves. It was not Joel Klein, much as his megalomania compels him to take credit. In fact, we enabled Joel Klein, who suggested and therefore created Michelle Rhee.   It's time for the UFT to stop celebrating demagogues who delight in the firing of teachers based on nonsense.  It's time for the UFT to stand up to Rhee, Klein, Bloomberg, Obama, Cuomo, all the idiot filmmakers, and all the mythology left in their wake.

In short, it's time for us to be a union again.   Let's continue to make bold steps like getting behind Tony Avella.  Let's continue to support those who support us, and for goodness sake, let's vigorously oppose those who don't.

Suspensions: What Are They Good For?

This post at A Shrewdness of Apes got me thinking about suspensions, not that I haven't been thinking about them already. After the dirrrrrty girl fight last week, the young ladies involved both received in-school suspension, as is the standard procedure here in New York. The thing is, I've never really seen a suspension have an impact on a kid's behavior. Maybe that's what a suspension is--an admission that we don't know what else to do with a kid.

Of course, seriously and chronically disruptive kids can't stay in the classroom. It's not fair to the teacher or to all the other students. But has this suspension taught these girls anything? Let's go straight to the source and find out. I've developed a good relationship with one of the girls, and during a precious prep I liberated her from in-school and took her for a walk, attempting to have a heart-to-heart about what happened.

Her verdict? She'd do it, meaning punch her opponent in the face, again, if she felt challenged or threatened.

So has suspension had the intended effect?

It doesn't help that the girls are missing their academic work during the suspension, either, which neither of them can afford to miss.

I'm not saying I have an answer. I'm just saying that this doesn't seem to be it.

***

p.s. Don't forget to get out and VOTE!