Yeah I am just living the dream what with me working every summer since I started in order to pay for the student loans on the two master's degrees I have along with the regular bills of life.  Thankfully I live in a relatively poor community so I can at least have something of a balance life (been working 5+ years and just broke 40k) and as far as the pension plan, like that is going to be there in 30 years when I retire.  Ha.  I will not complain (too much, haha) about what I make as I know it could be far worse, but this idea that we are all living a life of luxury is false.  In 20 years or so, yeah I will be doing well, but I imagine that is the case in many industries.

Like I mentioned above, a gift is hardly necessary.  Just an acknowledgement of what I do and a little appreciation is all I'd ever want.

Johnny Walker Black is the minimum.  Blue label (though I actually prefer the Gold) may get your child some attention.  I may be the stereotypical white male, scotch drinking, history teacher.

In all seriousness though, I have been teaching for a number of years now and gifts are not really commonplace at the high school level in my district. (But invitations to grad parties with the expectation of a financial contribution on my part are frequent) I have received a few trinkets, but the best was simple a card from the student and the parents both of whom wrote a nice, short note.  For the vast majority of us in the trenches, it is just nice to hear that what we do has an effect and that we are appreciated since we hear it so rarely.

A good bottle of scotch always works for me at the end of the school year. It helps replace the couple I go through while teaching.

Thomas Friedman, Completely and Utterly Wrong
In other obvious news, it will be dark tonight.

I originally posted this as a bit of a joke, but I think it touches on a few things that are fairly prevalent in the area in which I live.  Most people go through their lives thinking very little of the political or with really making rational decisions.  Impulse and emotion are the driving factors for many people and for myself from time to time, despite my love of logic.  I think this translates into the electorate as well as illustrated with the recent election and how things like the "War on Women", the 47% (which this guy looks like he may be a part of) and other memes became the lens through which Romney was viewed.  I think we do have a messaging problem which is coupled with policy problems as well.  We get characterized as old white guys (or hillbilly southerners) who hate women, gays, and minorities (which we seem to confirm with Akin like incidents) and we need to completely rethink how we talk about issues, the language we use, the people using it, and the means through which we reach out.

The tyranny of the ill-informed and foolish.

Its the same side of the coin that we always complain that liberals do, call people names, shout them down, and intimidate them. These tactics are nothing more recourse of those unable to truly coach or inspire greatness.  Does anyone think that someone like John Wooden would have ever done this to players?  I understand that we as a culture are getting overly sensitive to things, but this is just bullying/abuse plain and simple and players are powerless to stop it since whistle blowers run the risk of losing their scholarship and are ostracized from things.  Look at the cheating scandal unfolding at Auburn about paying students and changing grades and there is always the implied threat of "we can take this all away from you".  These are 18-19 year old kids (and I use the word kid intentionally) and frankly, no person deserves this kind of treatment, especially considering this is all over people playing a game.  I think that this was the lead story on many news networks is a sadder commentary on our society than him being fired for this kind of behavior.

I saw them at the Ommegang brewery in Cooperstown last summer.  Phenomenal show and great beer too.  A rare combo in upstate NY.  I think it should be illegal as well, but I think we may be past the point of no return in a few places.  This may be a more regional problem.

Excellent call on the Wilco.  Great band.  As for the standards, they'll eventually find a way to make it super low so they can wail on people with DWIs and make money.  I'm a cynic on all this, they'll find a way to make money on it like they do with tobacco.

Obama fails even in dropping ball, violates law of gravity, issues executive order requiring government officials not to enforce the law of gravity.

Basically, schools are not a business and we need to stop looking at them as such.

Without tenure, we'd have an itinerant workforce since with a public institution, the emphasis seems to always be on bending down the cost curve and those who had the means would be able to send their kids to better schools who wouldn't start firing people based on salary when budget cuts hit.  This being said, I am OK with merit pay and a reform of tenure, but I do think it does have some place in education in general.  There is also the idea that tenure makes one bullet proof, and it does not. It merely guarantees someone due process, they can be fired.  Its the lawyers (and the union with whom I have serious issues) that have made it prohibitively expensive to get rid of someone.  Tenure isn't the main issue with schools, it's the collapse of families and any sense of responsibility for kids by parents and the expectation of effort on students as well. The focus should be on getting better people into education and deriding the field (by assuming we're all lazy) and expecting people to work for peanuts isn't going to get the best and brightest in a classroom.

Teaching isn't any other profession.  We are not making widgets here and the kind of gains that people measure in other fields aren't possible in education (at least in any short term way.  Look at a trend over 5-7 years and you'll get a good idea of whether or not a teacher is good at what they do) The internal politics are worse because they involve people's children, which means many parents seem to embrace myopic, irrational viewpoints on things.  Also, since everyone seems to think that test scores are the greatest indicator of success for students nowadays, what happens when I get a group of students every year who are of varying levels and all have different needs, my results will fluctuate a bit (they do now) but a one year down turn could result in my being fired, seems kind of silly to me.  Again, there are flaws and if administrators and teachers themselves did a better job of evaluating and policing themselves, the system would work far better. 

Cont'd

Its about protecting teachers from the whims of revolving door administrators(3 in 4 years) and board members, many of whom struggled to get out of high school themselves.  I know of a person who ran for school board once in a town near me (small, upstate NY) because they wanted to go after a teacher who had the unmitigated gall to give their little genius a B in a class.  I myself have been threatened by children of board members with the "don't know know who my dad is" line.  Tenure is deeply flawed, but as someone who works in a small town where idiotic politics are the norm and people would try to get a teacher fired because their kid didn't start on the basketball team, I think it has its uses.  Should the process be more onerous, yes.  Should it happen after say 6-7 years rather than 3, yes.  But to say that it serves no purpose but to protect incompetence is wrong.  Work in a small town and you can see some of the benefits.  The idea that the good teachers would always be retained and bad ones fired is off-base, sadly.

My 10th graders are learning of this as we speak.  I think that (outside major cities) the plight of the schools isn't nearly as bad as some would have us believe.  Yes, there are certainly flaws, but there is still some solid learning going on in the classrooms of America.  All is not lost.