capitalism runs deep...sympathy from a stranger
The current behavioral wisdom endorses rewarding improvements in behavior; with that in mind, our school offers a schoolwide reward day for bringing the number of serious infractions ("pink slips") down from the same month last year. It is a method of group contingency I cannot endorse, because 1) there are different students from year to year; 2) the under-10 set are notoriously bad about giving a shit about anything beyond 'tomorrow'; and 3) it is the same dozen kids who ruin things for everyone, every damn time.
The kids shot this month's reward to hell in the first week.
The deciding factor in canceling the "Hay Day", as it's called, was the decision of a 10-year old to bring in porn magazines & DVDs to sell to his classmates. In his defense, I figure he was trying to raise bail for his dad, who was incarcerated for the umpteeth time for theft. The kid's been wearing Pop's "#1 Dad" ballcap for a week now. Anyway, it's doubtless that #1 Dad was the source for the goodies; every kid has found a stash of something illicit at some point or another, but to have the cajones to bring stuff in to sell in an elementary school...that's an entrepreneur.
I realize the entries are sparse. It's not due to a lack of material, I can assure you; rather, I am overwhelmed and burnt out on the topic. I met a woman on my flight back from my hometown and we struck up a conversation; she blanched slightly when she heard me mention where I taught. She was a counselor here half a dozen years ago for a couple of years. With thirty-four years of educational counseling under her belt, she told me what I already knew: this place is messed up. She shook her head and gave me her sympathies. I guess people gave her a hard time, too, and were mean and catty and gossipy. Good to know it's not just me being harangued. She asked me about some people she knew. Turns out we have been through a minimum of three high school principals, three elementary school principals, two superintendents, and half a dozen counselors since she was here in the 1999-2000 school year. This is far from normal. This is the turnover rate for your typical McJob, not professional positions held by people with advanced degrees. How many people has this place driven from careers in education? Does anyone care?
The kids shot this month's reward to hell in the first week.
The deciding factor in canceling the "Hay Day", as it's called, was the decision of a 10-year old to bring in porn magazines & DVDs to sell to his classmates. In his defense, I figure he was trying to raise bail for his dad, who was incarcerated for the umpteeth time for theft. The kid's been wearing Pop's "#1 Dad" ballcap for a week now. Anyway, it's doubtless that #1 Dad was the source for the goodies; every kid has found a stash of something illicit at some point or another, but to have the cajones to bring stuff in to sell in an elementary school...that's an entrepreneur.
I realize the entries are sparse. It's not due to a lack of material, I can assure you; rather, I am overwhelmed and burnt out on the topic. I met a woman on my flight back from my hometown and we struck up a conversation; she blanched slightly when she heard me mention where I taught. She was a counselor here half a dozen years ago for a couple of years. With thirty-four years of educational counseling under her belt, she told me what I already knew: this place is messed up. She shook her head and gave me her sympathies. I guess people gave her a hard time, too, and were mean and catty and gossipy. Good to know it's not just me being harangued. She asked me about some people she knew. Turns out we have been through a minimum of three high school principals, three elementary school principals, two superintendents, and half a dozen counselors since she was here in the 1999-2000 school year. This is far from normal. This is the turnover rate for your typical McJob, not professional positions held by people with advanced degrees. How many people has this place driven from careers in education? Does anyone care?
spoken by Sister Morpheme at 7:29 PM
4 Rants:
And was incoming shark music (Jaws theme) playing in the background? Or the classic horror flic background music (the monster is in the room but victim/s not aware)?
Rather than Mountainair being an anomaly, isolated and irrelevant to education elsewhere, it is, I suspect, merely one of many far points on a depressing spectrum. Pedagogic snakepit in a state that is a pedagogic snake. A worst of the worst, if you will. Like the seesaw with fatboy on one end, the weight on this spectrum clumps to the far end or the worst rather than hovering about the median because there are many, many near-beer Mountainairs in NM. Switching metaphors midstream: statwise (faux educators so love juggling stats), this moves the seesaw's fulcrum toward the far end of the worst.
Nor is it limited to K-12. Think on it: the purported educational goal (and misleading measurement) is for every student graduating from secondary school to go on to college. Fast forward to contemplate your charges in a college classroom some years hence, basic attitudes unchanged and skill levels only marginally enhanced. Then shudder and quote Yeats to yourself.
I came from a pretty fucked up school system in West Virginia (as a student, not a teacher, duh). My county (Lincoln) still has the lowest college graduation rate in the state--and it's not even one of the so-called "Deliverance counties." My best friend and I always get strange reactions when we tell people about our time there--it's like they really don't believe us or something. Or they don't want to believe us.
Anyway, I tell you this as a set up--I think really your school district is much worse than the one I came from. Unless your lying. Which sadly, I know you're not.
Taking a rather long vacation from the blog, aren't we...
I thought I made it pretty fucking clear that I am REAL close to destroyed, here. Entertaining tho' it may be, the real purpose of this blog was a pressure valve; when it lost that, I had to let it go for a while.
This is not some Dilbert strip. This is my shitty, shitty life.
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