This is the time of year when young people get to stay home and work on the farm to bring the crops in during harvest season. 
That was the reason why school's close during the summer months the whole world over. The fact that students don't stay down on the farm anymore hasn't changed the school year's extended summer vacation. Teachers like the schedule and I know they are nicely stressed by the time the year is coming to a close.
My wife was going around pointing out that all six of her students sitting for graduation passed. "100% of your students graduated," and experienced administrator pointed out to her. She teaches in the Keys Center, a school that teaches troubled youth that want to change and do better. They select their students and work with them all year long (ten months) to instill proper learning techniques. Summer is a time to relax for teachers as well as students.
Monroe County Schools have been struggling to cut a 90 million dollar budget by ten percent and Keys Center has survived the cuts which means students that may fall between the cracks won't for at least one more year. I am filled with admiration for the schools in the Keys which offer traditional close relationships between teachers and students, and offer tons of activities and cultural activities that are dropping by the wayside on the mainland. The band is a going concern, physical fitness is taught and I find most students to be polite and well mannered in an old fashioned way when I meet them around town. The best of Island Living. 
So now that the school year is over my wife gathered the staff together at Nan's waterfront home on Sugarloaf Key and they had a blow out. I showed up at my wife's insistence though I was shy about butting in and eating their food but I need not have worried- there was plenty of food and drink for all.
Michael made some extraordinary black bean quesadillas with mole sauce. He also introduced me to the concept of filling a watermelon with vodka. There was some discussion about young people on Youtube pouring vodka into their eyes. Among we, the middle aged, there were not takers to try out this novel way of absorbing alcohol. 
After swimming kayaking and sunbathing the afternoon agenda turned to charades.
The idea was to write all the students names on a piece of paper and draw them at random and then act out the students' foibles. Nan, the office manager had seen it all.
Cathy and Heather laughed at the quirks but when it came to be her turn to perform Cathy stood up, thoughtful and muttered: " This is work!" Heather, the school counselor countered; "This is release!"
The names went round a couple of times and even for an outside observer like me the student types are kids we recognize, that we grew up with and that live in our memories. 
Some of us were not impressed. 
"Miss Goldman! I can't do this!"
"This is too hard!!" It amazes me how teachers manage to balance their work, their students, the parents, and the bureaucracy of teaching and still they end the year with a sense of fondness for their charges and a sense of satisfaction for a job well done for the year. Other people go fishing to release their stress. 
The charades were not limited to students, the teachers took on each other...
...to everyone's amusement.
And none of this stirred Cheyenne. 
They give lip service to teachers while they want to tear down their unions, their pensions, their inadequate salaries. Put Goldman Sachs in charge of schools I say., teach the kids how to cheat and lie and steal from an early age. Much more effective. Besides the bonuses would be gigantic!
That was the reason why school's close during the summer months the whole world over. The fact that students don't stay down on the farm anymore hasn't changed the school year's extended summer vacation. Teachers like the schedule and I know they are nicely stressed by the time the year is coming to a close.
My wife was going around pointing out that all six of her students sitting for graduation passed. "100% of your students graduated," and experienced administrator pointed out to her. She teaches in the Keys Center, a school that teaches troubled youth that want to change and do better. They select their students and work with them all year long (ten months) to instill proper learning techniques. Summer is a time to relax for teachers as well as students.Monroe County Schools have been struggling to cut a 90 million dollar budget by ten percent and Keys Center has survived the cuts which means students that may fall between the cracks won't for at least one more year. I am filled with admiration for the schools in the Keys which offer traditional close relationships between teachers and students, and offer tons of activities and cultural activities that are dropping by the wayside on the mainland. The band is a going concern, physical fitness is taught and I find most students to be polite and well mannered in an old fashioned way when I meet them around town. The best of Island Living. So now that the school year is over my wife gathered the staff together at Nan's waterfront home on Sugarloaf Key and they had a blow out. I showed up at my wife's insistence though I was shy about butting in and eating their food but I need not have worried- there was plenty of food and drink for all.
Michael made some extraordinary black bean quesadillas with mole sauce. He also introduced me to the concept of filling a watermelon with vodka. There was some discussion about young people on Youtube pouring vodka into their eyes. Among we, the middle aged, there were not takers to try out this novel way of absorbing alcohol. After swimming kayaking and sunbathing the afternoon agenda turned to charades.The idea was to write all the students names on a piece of paper and draw them at random and then act out the students' foibles. Nan, the office manager had seen it all.
Cathy and Heather laughed at the quirks but when it came to be her turn to perform Cathy stood up, thoughtful and muttered: " This is work!" Heather, the school counselor countered; "This is release!"
The names went round a couple of times and even for an outside observer like me the student types are kids we recognize, that we grew up with and that live in our memories. 
Some of us were not impressed. "Miss Goldman! I can't do this!""This is too hard!!" It amazes me how teachers manage to balance their work, their students, the parents, and the bureaucracy of teaching and still they end the year with a sense of fondness for their charges and a sense of satisfaction for a job well done for the year. Other people go fishing to release their stress. The charades were not limited to students, the teachers took on each other......to everyone's amusement. 
And none of this stirred Cheyenne. 
They give lip service to teachers while they want to tear down their unions, their pensions, their inadequate salaries. Put Goldman Sachs in charge of schools I say., teach the kids how to cheat and lie and steal from an early age. Much more effective. Besides the bonuses would be gigantic!
4 comments:
Putting the private sector in charge of schools is the new trend in American public education. Charter schools are run by private organizations and they are expanding all over the country.
Bonuses are big in some districts. In Houston teachers can get bonuses that are greater than 20% of their salary.
If it's good for Texas it will be great for the rest of the country.Considering the huge advances made in recent text book changes in the Lone Star State.
Of course private(religious) schools that award bonuses instead of decent wages and benefits don't want to touch the awkward parts of universal education, the slow the lame the difficult. The one's that used to be known as God's creatures. They are inefficient to teach and get left behind.
The level playing field is getting less and less level the more the private sector rules our lives.
The charter schools are not expanding because they are better (they are not). Their expansion is driven by the ideology of choice in education. Enough people believe that if parent can choose their school that schools would respond to competition and get better. It turns out that that assumption is false.
On the bonus scheme side of things the truth is even more interesting than the ideologues can imagine. It turns out that the majority of teachers who rank in the top quintile for a given year, fail to do so for the next year. Even better a number of those in the bottom quintile, who are supposed to be fired, manage to end up in the top quintile the very next year. Teachers don't even call it a bonus plan in Houston. It's called a lottery.
Of course, the bonus schemes are all doomed. As soon as they fire a teacher who can demonstrate that the numbers used to rate them are unreliable from year to year the game will be up.
But the good news is the best of everything goes to the best (white and connected) families and everyone else is left at the bottom. And as long as it is wrapped in iedology (free markets!) they are cheered on.
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