Last week

This blog entry has been sitting in my journal since last week. I kept forgetting to copy and paste it into my blog.

Deer in the headlights.

I have one poor kid in my first block class who is so far behind he thinks he is first. I actually have him on an attendance contract. He must attend at least four days a week or he will be dropped from the class.

At first, this struck me as odd. Why should this kid be allowed to attend just four days a week?

Could I tell my best students, “You know what? You’re kicking so much ass in class this week, take Thursday and Friday off.” No I couldn’t.

But that is just one of the ironies of education - if not our entire society. Who tend to get the most breaks? Those who don’t deserve them. Isn’t that the whole controversy over welfare (Good lord, I’m starting to sound dangerously like a Republican).

But I’m no better in my classes. How often do I give a quiz to force (or at least try to force) everyone to do the work? Here I’m just punishing the normal students who do their homework.

Or look at how I treat athletes or others involved in extra curricular activities. I don’t give them any breaks for being in them. I always tell them that I expect more out of them.

So instead of giving an excellent student two days off a week, I should give them extra work to push them to excel.

The student who is so far behind is a nice enough kid. He just isn’t really into learning anything about English. I can live with that. He loves metals, machines, and engines. I try to connect TKM to that, and there are ways of doing this, but all one can do is present the connection - one cannot reach inside his brain, flick a switch, and establish that connection.

I really would like him to learn the lesson that one sometimes must suffer through something they aren’t crazy about (in this case, my class) in order to do get what they want. If he is doing so well in his other classes and loves them so much, shouldn’t he be willing to work hard in my class so he isn’t completely dropped? You would think so. I mean I suffered through some of the most asinine education classes in order to get my teaching degree. I didn’t say,”I really love reading and writing, but those education classes are a waste, so I’m not going to try in those.” I endured and made it.

That is what I’d like him to learn.

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What is this world coming to? I just used a scene from “Family Guy”to make a point about TKM.

Just now I’m seeing how similar TKM is to “The Crucible.” Is there a way to connect these two for the kids? It’s been over two months since we read “The Crucible.” Would they remember? Maybe I’ll reduce this down to an essay question on the final test.

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Another thing I’m realizing about TKM is just how brilliant Atticus’s closing argument is. I wish I would have analyzed this for rhetoric in college. It’s absolutely brilliant. Another reminder why re-reading is rewarding.

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A great quote from Atticus’s closing argument --

“The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious -- because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority.”

We see this here with our apathetic freshman. A colleague was just telling me how most of her class just doesn’t do the work or even try. I think this is a carry over from the middle school where they have the policy that no one fails. I know several middle school teachers who use us as a threat. “Now you have to work hard because in high school you will actually fail a class,” they tell them. But it doesn’t do much good. It would be interesting to see what percent of the freshman class flunk. I guess I’ll find out. I have freshman third quarter for a Comp I class. Hopefully by then they will acclimated to the high school environment.

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For starters today, I have the students listing on a note card everything they know about the trial. The top two will be allowed to skip the next TWO quizzes. So the competition is pretty good. But this poor kid on the attendance policy is looking around like a deer in the headlights of a fast approaching semi. I can see the words, “What trial?” forming in his brain.

Life goes on. It is what it is.

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Apathy.

I have graded three College Comp essays that were laughable. One was about the seat belt law. Another tried to tackle the issue of pro-choice. The only problem was they tried to tackle it in little over a page. Another paper must have been written for another class because the student had the form all screwed up. The thing wasn’t even double spaced, yet she double spaced every other paper. There was no thesis statement, just an overview of her topic (I know, you’re thinking, what is he doing talking about a thesis statement - how blasphemous. But I do teach the thesis-support format!). I am just afraid for these kids when they get into college. They won’t last long with their efforts.


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Brilliant.

Ch. 1 (a news program shown in school) is airing a show on a school in Pennsylvania that is grading parents. Love it. Wow. I have to think more about this.

Now they are interviewing students to see what they think of parents being graded. Most are saying, “I think it’s unfair. Parents have a lot of other responisibilites.”

Hello? What kind of cop out is that? You, dear student, ARE their responsibility. Yes, they have a lot of other responsibilities. But that comes with the territory. If they can’t be responisble for them all, they shouldn’t have had kids.