playoff disappointment

Like most other red-meat-eating, beer drinking American males of my age cohort, I sat down and watched the opening weekend of the NFL Playoffs (playoffs?) this Saturday and Sunday. I was very excited about the prospect of four knock-down, drag-out barnburners that would remind me why I love football and the NFL so much.

What did I get instead? Let me recount Wild Card Weekend:

Atlanta at Arizona: Is the Colts game on yet? I napped through most of this one, as my headache and fatigue of the announcer's adulation of Matt Ryan eventually brought me to zzz's.

Indianapolis at San Diego: Boy do I hate Philip Rivers. Firstly, the man throws like a clown. His release is god-awful and makes me wonder how this man has managed to have the highest QB rating in all of football this year. Secondly, his personality is so distasteful that I wish for bodily harm to come of him at every play, something I can't even say about hated Donovan McNabb (more on him later). I thought my homeboy Peyton was going to pull this one out, but apparently someone forgot to tell Indy's D that its not ok to a) grab a fistful of mask during a tackle, b) interfere with a receiving-man on a ball that is probably uncatchable anyway, and c) one cannot hold even if you are playing defense. Fuck the Chargers.

Baltimore at Miami: I really had no clear favorite in this one, I just wanted an entertaining game and would have been slightly more pleased by a Miami win, but it wasn't a dealbreaker for me. Instead, what I got was a Baltimore romp in which Chad Pennington reverted to his "Hanging" Chad days of floater-ball interceptions and general lackluster plays. The wildcat was thoroughly tamed by Special Ed and the rest of the Baltimorons. Perhaps the most annoying thing about this game, though, was the fact that the Dolphins kept it close enough throught the second half that I kept watching, holding out hope for an exciting game that would never materialize. Ugh.

Philadelphia at Minnesota: I promised I would get to McNabb, et al. and I have. Due to my general hatred of the Eagles and becasue I knew a Vikings win would send the Cardinals to play my beloved NYFBG, I had the most hope going into this game. After the heartbreak of seeing the Colts lose to one of my most hated teams, I thought that fate would smile upon me and the oft-blighted Vikings and bestow a victory upon the purple people eaters. Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead I was treated to an overall defensive stalemate punctuated by Tavaris Jackson's woeful incompetence at the quarterback position. Minnesota had a viable chance at taking the game from the Eagles several times, but they proved that they wanted the loss more. AP was put on the shelf in the later parts of the game, thrusting the entirety of the effort on the feeble shoulders of Mr. Jackson. What a mistake. Realizing that the Vikings O-Line is but a mere fleshy seive, the Jim Johnson - the Eagles D-Coordinator - let loose his dogs of war. It was an ugly sight and a sad loss.

Here's to hoping for a better weekend during the Divisional Round. Here are my preferred outcomes (preferred winners in BOLD):

Baltimore at Tennessee: Enough of the reign of Reed.
San Diego at Pittsburgh: Rivers must be dried up.
Arizona at Carolina: Don't want to see Smash 'n' Dash again.
Philadelphia at New York: NYFBG FTW!

a little more serif

So I have updated the layout of the site a bit more... I never quite settled on the background color before and I have decided to change things around a bit. I also changed the typeface from verdana to georgia to give the text a different feel. There might be future tinkering, so... be prepared!

smart kids, bad schools

Smart Kids, Bad Schools, authored by high school English teacher-turned-author Brian Crosby, has been taking up most of my reading time as of late. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book, mainly because of my recent kick in rethinking the way I think about public education. The premise of the book is that while public schools are racked with problems, they are our best option in terms of educating young people that is available. From his perspective of working in Los Angeles area public school, Mr. Crosby provides 38 ways that he thinks our current system could be improved... from my perspective, I am going to provide my own take on 5 of his best ideas for reforming the system.

5. (1) What Building Is Drab-Looking, Has Gates All Around It, with Bells Ringing All the Time? (Hint: It's Not a Prison)

In his first chapter, Mr. Crosby makes the point that schools are designed horribly these days. Even newer schools are bland-looking and set a very negative tone for what goes on within the walls of the school. He also makes the point that the way that school is structured, with bells going off to indicate that students should move on to the next class and with Student Resource Officers (SROs - little more than glorified sheriff's deputies) marshaling over the goings-on of the school as if it were a prison. When you put kids into a prison-like place, and set the tone of expectation that they will screw up and break all sorts of rules, well... don't be surprised when they behave like prisoners and act a fool!

The point is well taken... in the school in which I work there is an SRO and several administrators whose sole job it seems is to monitor the halls and to track down troubled children. At least once a week there are "hall sweeps" which are used to flush out the tardy children who are just hanging out in the halls. They are collected by these administrators and placed into the auditorium, presumably to strike fear in their harts such that they will never be late again... right. Halls sweeps are ridiculous... if kids are late to class or just trying to spend their time hanging out in the hall... fuck them up. Give them suspensions or just kick them out of school. If they don't want to be in class and want to fuck around, they can do that on someone else's time. These administrators could be doing more useful things with their time rather than being the police of the school.

4. (29) Outlaw Teacher's Unions

Towards the end of his book, Mr. Crosby makes the point that a lot of the changes he proposes to public education, as well as any change in general, are rendered immediately fanciful because of the powerful teachers unions that are interested in maintaining the status quo. He also points out that all teachers have at least a bachelors' degree and most of them have masters' degrees, so having their work treated in the same way as autoworkers (an occupation that requires little to no college education) is demeaning and regressive. The assertion is rightly made that the unions for the most part are interested in the power of the union, not the betterment of the teaching profession or what is best for students.

Although I have little experience with teachers unions, I have gained some experience with how teachers view the status quo and its not good. I have some teacher-friends and they fall into two categories for the most part: those who are upset by much of what they see going on in the school and will soon change occupation if their situations don't improve and those who are satisfied enough with the way things are going/are apathetic to the real problems that face the school. Teachers unions are against many proven methods of improving the student experience: performance-based pay, eliminating the summer vacation, and more rigorous licensure measures. I think that any institution that stands against the kind of change that schools need is vile and needs to be done away with. Its obvious that many, many schools are underperforming and that education is becoming a black hole for billions of dollars of public funds, so lets do away with that which is holding back much needed reform.

3. (19) Put the A Back in Advanced Placement Classes

Mr. Crosby bemoans the fact that these days simply too many kids are taking the AP program of classes. The AP was initially designed as a rigorous curriculum for college preparation, and now it has taken the place of honors classes as a place for students to acquire weighted grades. Parents clamor for their students to be in these classes, and for the school districts to offer more of them, while the number of truly bright and dedicated kids up to the challenge of taking these classes isn't necessarily increasing. The result is a watered-down experience for those students who are in the classes for the right reasons of intellectual curiosity and aptitude.

This is one of the points of the book that really appealed to me. Being placed in a high school where the AP curriculum is somewhat suspect, I really took to noticing more about how there were some really trifling kids taking AP classes, some mediocre kids taking AP classes, and much fewer actually competent and prepared students taking the classes. Another problem about the AP situation, especially at my school, is that there aren't enough teachers qualified to teach the classes that are in demand and scheduled. For example, AP US History is taught virtually from the other high school in the county because of a shortage of teachers certified to teach the course. The result? Shitty classroom experience (students can't ask questions of a teacher who isn't there), a TERRIBLE passage rate on the AP test (a 3 is hailed as a great success at SHS), and a cheating scandal because the person watching over the class is super disinterested in watching the kids and grading tests that she didn't write (awesome!). The AP should be a great way for kids to get a jump on college - kids who are able to compete in the class and absorb the information required to pass the class.

2. (10) What One-third of All Seventeen- and Eighteen-year-olds Are Not Doing This Year (and It Has Nothing to Do with Sex or Drugs)

This chapter covers the alarming dropout rate among high school students in this country. According to statistics that Mr. Crosby provides, about 1/3 of the aforementioned seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds each year are dropping out of high school, an alarming statistic. Further statistics provided by Crosby show that the US ranks 11th among developed nations in our high school graduation rate, and that we used to rank 1st.

On its face, this might not be of great concern to you... after all, the world needs people to staff the McDonalds, the WalMarts, and the convenience stores. But when you think about it more deeply, you realize that these people will be lacking even the most remedial skills in reading, writing, and mathematics, leading to an overall dumbing down of our culture and country. This dropout rate is telling us that public schools are failing to engage and make school worthwhile to a third of the children that come through its doors. If you were to think that maybe the standards for high school graduation are too lofty, that if maybe schools made it easier to graduate we wouldn't have such an alarming figure, let me assuage your fears: IF YOU HAVE A PULSE, YOU CAN GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL these days. The last thing that schools are set up to do these days is allow for failure, such is the fear of administrators of having funding to their schools reduced or losing their jobs. Students are allowed to take, re-take, and take again standardized tests required by states to graduate from high school and teachers are actively discouraged from giving out F's that will prevent students from moving through high school. So trust me, these kids are not dropping out for lack of hope of attaining that elusive high school diploma. They are leaving because they find the classes disengaging, the material they are being forced to learn (or really not learn, as evidenced above) boring/inapplicable, or because they don't see the point in going to school if they want to be anything other than a college going student. Which brings me to my favorite point of the book...

1. (11) Vocational Education: Public Schools' Neglected Stepchild

Because Mr. Crosby makes his point best in his own words, I will quote from the opening paragraphs of his chapter to summarize:

"When students don't feel that school provides them with any thing, they act out in antisocial ways, from not doing work to creating a disturbance in class to vandalizing the school. A crucial area of connecting students to their schools is making sure there are enough choices to satisfy most students' interests. Currently in high school this is not the case.

Why are students brought up on the belief that they can accomplish any goal, yet when they get to high school their options are limited to "you will go to college"?

The question that needs to be asked of every high school student is "What are you interested in doing?" instead of "did you know that college graduates make X amount of money?" If a youngster can't stand spinach, the solution isn't to give him a heaping portion of it. You try to find alternative nutritious foods he will eat."

With the line of work that I am in, this chapter proved the most pertinent to me. I see the main thrust of this chapter playing out every day, amongst the guidance counselors I work with, the teachers in my school, and amongst my colleagues in college access. I can't blame students for seeing that all that high school is leading up to is more schooling, more classes that they are disinterested in, and ultimately ore wasting of their time. If a high school student has no appetite for college, currently their only options are to go through the motions at school and make a token effort, or to not. I can't blame those who choose to not go through the motions, to be honest. If you were to show up to a place every day, where you have no interest in what you are doing, where teachers treat you like crap because you don't want anything to do with what they are teaching you, where administrators are always on your case for not rushing to another useless class... would you show up? Probably not.

That’s why vocational education needs to be stressed more heavily. Instead of treating it as beneath our students, we need to be encouraging it as the best option for a lot of them. In the coming days I will write more about the ideas of chapter, as it fits into a general theory about the high school/college/vocational education paradigm. Suffice to say, though, that this point is one that more in my field need to consider more heavily. College isn't, or shouldn't be, for everyone.

The final verdict: the book is decent. Mr. Crosby makes some good points (like the ones above), but many of his chapters are weighed down by personal examples that stray from the main thrusts of the book and seem rather petty. He also shills for his American Educational Association (a professional association as an option for teachers against the powerful NEA), something that I wasn't crazy about in the context of a book that should have a more objective point of view. The writing isn't all that great and oftentimes ventures into the colloquial. Mr. Crosby is fond of providing statistics to back up his personal observations, but most all of these statistics lack proper footnotes or parenthetical references, so there is really no good way of backing up many of the points he attempts to bolster through the use of statistics. I would say its worth a read for the points mentioned above, but definitely peruse it on your next trip to Borders or take a look at it in the library, don't shell out precious dollars to buy it.

smell, et al.

Samuels Public Library: where the most trifling denizens of FroRo congregate when the other vagabond spots are closed.

Now, I am not one to talk. I consider the library one of the places I can most often be found aside from my home and school. I like the fact that it has free internet, many interesting books, and a great library staff that is both helpful and polite (not like most of the librarians I have come across in my life).

But I am nothing like the rest of the people that come here. I have often described the people who frequent the library as the dregs of FroRo society, and I think today is a day that proves my point unlike any other. Just moments ago, as I walked in, I noticed two things about the current state of the library: 1) that there were a lot of people here and 2) holy shit it smelled like burnt rubber and ass! As I gathered more information about the scene, I realized that these two facts were intimately correlated, as the vast majority of people in here were some of the fattest, most unkempt looking fuckers I have ever laid eyes upon. The typical cast of characters were all here, namely the Waddler, the Quiet Studying Girl (not trifling for the record, but an established regular), Snoring Old Man, and the Beard Brigade, but this time they brought their families and friends it seemed. So many stained, raggedy shirts! So many people queued for access to computers to check their MySpace! So much BODY ODOR.

As a result, I am here blogging from a carrel in the far recesses of the library. Away from all of the malodorous nonsense going on in the main area. I pray that the cloud of evaporated plebian sweat will not reach me before I can do what I need to do and get out of here.

sat testing

thoughts on this article in the NYTimes, from an email to a colleague:

I believe that the test needs to play a prominent role in college admissions. As the piece noted, it is a fairly reliable predictor of graduation rate, which is a very telling statistic. It shows how well students were able to adjust to the college curriculum and succeed at the next level.

What I worry about with the loosening of standards for SAT scores in admissions is that students are being admitted into schools that they are not fully ready to compete in. For example, with vocabulary and the SAT... the words featured on the test are not so obscure that one would not expect the average college student to be familiar with them. So if we let students into college who lack these words in their vocabulary, we are faced with two options: 1) let these students proceed in classes where it seems like the professors are speaking a foreign language or 2) "dumb down" the expectations of entering first years' vocabulary, thus leading to an overall watering down of the collegiate experience. I'm not saying that having a small vocabulary should be a barrier for students, but if they are genuinely interested in getting a good education, they need to spend the time to learn the language of complex ideas and creative description.

In terms of what to do about the SAT problem, the burden falls upon the schools. I think that schools systems that are serious about getting more of their students to go to 4 year school or community college, and thus improve the communities that they serve, need to incorporate SAT prep into their curricula. One teacher aptly described this as "pulling from the top" instead of "pushing from the bottom", which would describe the narrow focus on just getting kids to pass the SOLs. If schools don't take any measures to make sure that their students are prepared for the SAT, they are relegating themselves to a never-ending cycle of low socioeconomic standing compared to those districts that invest in their students' performance on these tests. Its not enough to put funding into fee waiver programs, just to see those students get 1000s on the test (all three sections combined).

In summary: the test is flawed, yet it is a useful tool right now. I think to do away with it would be folly, but changes are definitely necessary. Now off to my next SAT prep course for these kids...

veterans day

Veterans Day

So today is Veterans Day, and sadly I am blogging this day after school because Warren County doesn't feel the need to give its students a holiday for what should be one of the most important non-religious holidays of the year. Why is Veterans Day so important, you ask? What makes it more special than, say, Memorial Day or the 4th of July? My answer is fairly simple, its one word, and its:

PEACE.

As most of you probably know, Veterans Day (11 November) is descended from the earlier Armistice Day (which underwent a name change after World War II), which signified the end of fighting on the western front in World War I. The Great War, as it is also known - especially in Europe - was the first modern conflagration Europe had ever experienced, and the first struggle between nations on a truly global scale. Modern warfare, instead of producing the rapid victories as many prognosticators forecasted, actually produced protracted, meaningless, and horribly destructive warfare when new technology was placed in the hands of 19th century-oriented generals. Millions upon millions died of the war and its after-effects. It was truly horrible, scarring, and set the tone for a century where might was too often conflated with right. Not to say that previous centuries hadn't seen their fair share of bloodshed, but the 20th saw it brought about with cold calculation and ruthless efficiency.

But what does this have to do with Veterans Day, and why students should have the day off of school for it?

Here is my thinking:

Too often days that used to have significance in times of or just after great struggle lose their impact to a generation of relatively coddled and insolent youth. In the interests of blog-integrity, I must include myself in this generation. Although our nation is definitely at war, the military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan pale in comparison to the mobilizations this country has gone through in the past. Needless to say, that these are two ongoing conflicts that are not as high on the national conscience as our World Wars, or even Vietnam, a war to which our current situation is too often compared. Point is, students these days really have no idea what it was like to be alive in times of war like this, what kind of sacrifices everyone had to make, the heartache of having a whole generation wiped out or severely crippled due to war. That ignorance isn't all that bad, either: I bet most people who fought in those wars and lived through those times wouldn't wish it on any other generation. Students, and everyone for that matter, should not be totally ignorant of that hardship. They should know and have a somber reminder of all the pain and struggle each and every Veterans Day. Each year it should serve as a reminder of the bravery of those who serve, and of the undesirable nature of war as a means to resolve conflict between nations. Otherwise, Veterans Day becomes an empty "Hallmark Holiday" where people go through the motions while failing to grasp the significance of what the day actually means. If Veterans Day were taken more seriously, and if everyone learned from a young age what it all meant or should mean...

- Would leaders be as eager to engage in war if their people were fully aware of all the hardship and pain that it entails?
- Would those with few educational options be as intrigued by joining the service if they knew fully what being in a battle is like?
- Would we all demand that our veterans be treated with more care from the government that sent them out to fight if we knew better what they have sacrificed?
- Would more peaceful means be sought to resolve differences between all nations?

I usually don't like to be too serious, and I'm afraid that this post lacks most of the snark present in my average post, but I feel pretty strongly about this day and how it is presented to students. Maybe its because I work in a school. Maybe its because I am a history person and am fascinated by how important World War I was to our current history, or maybe even because I am encouraged by the new serious and thoughtful nature that our incoming presidential administration will bring to this country. I really can't tell for sure. What I do know is this: if someday, god willing, I am an old man high school history teacher, I will be sure to take this day to educate my students on how meaningful it truly is.

history

Because I will never tire of watching these clips, and because NBC is my official network:

(I like the NBC graphic declaring Obama to be the next president:)




(I like the overall MSNBC presentation:)





delicious.