The State of Education in America

Oh man, it's been 4 weeks of training, 3 weeks of summer school and I've come to this one lone opinion:

....

Well, let me do a little background information first before I get to that.

First off, they say everything in education goes in cycles. Whole that's all rad and everything, I'm of the opinion that things change because they don't work or were the wrong strategy to begin with. However, I've been a teacher for 3 weeks now, so I'm going to yield to those with more experience and give them the benefit of the doubt.

So, the current strategy in education is to put the fun back into fundamental...well, not really. But the whole yelling at the kids and trying to scare them and get them to back down just doesn't work. Generally, I agree with that. Kids know they hold the power for the most part and a lot of getting them to do work is them understanding they have to fall in line, because that's what you do, because they generally want to learn, which they do, and that they laugh when you yell...only making it worse. I witnessed this when I was in high school, as my senior year, the freshman clearly were of another generation that the seniors...I think I may have been a little old fashioned too at that point because I generally thought no matter what that what my teachers thought of me would affect my future. Kids today, not so much.

Kids today know they can get you fired when you step out of line, meaning they know their own boundaries of what they can get away with and basically what you can too.

Last week, I had my first "success" in the classroom when I was able to control a very disruptive class and teach a coherent lesson. Ironically enough, this was also about 30 minutes after I had another first experience: being cursed out and threatened by a student.

This kid said he did his work, did part of it, but had some serious attitude. So after checking his notebook, I lobbed it back onto his desk, where it landed on his forearm. The conversation is as follows:

"What the fuck do you think I am, a dog?"
"No, I don't think you're a dog. Do you think you can speak to me like that?"
"I can speak to you however the fuck I want."
"Do we have a problem?"
"Yes we have a fucking problem, I'm not a dog, you don't throw things at me."
"Do we have to call home?"
"I don't give a fuck what you do."
"OK, let's go call home."

As we get in the hallway, he drops the, "I don't give a fuck, I'll punch you in the face."

I believed he would and this was reinforced by my principal who stated that he was just loony enough to do that.

So for the last few days, I've thought about this incident, as well as other issues in "classroom management" or lack thereof. The kids pretty much are controlled whenever they want to. My feelings don't count. They talk, talk, joke around, talk, you get the point.

So after these incidents, 4 weeks learning in a classroom, 3 weeks teaching in a classroom and hearing countless times that education philosophies and strategies come and go in cycles, I now have this opinion:

If the kids don't have anything to fear, we need to put the fear back into education...we should be allowed to beat the ever loving shit out of the kids. They speak up and act out because they fear nothing. They phased out this whole barbaric strategy years ago, but maybe it's time to bring it on back. I've thought about this and I think I'd put a serious beat down on a 12 year old.

Now I ask you: there was a comment on a previous post about whether or not I should curse on this because I'm a teach now...in comparison to this post, anything else I shouldn't do?

Am I kidding? Yes...well, half-kidding. No this will never/should never come back, but I think I understand now why it's hard to control a class and how it's easy to lose control.

Yikes, I think I went too far....

WAIT, watch this:



You remember that "How a Bill Becomes a Law" clip on "School House Rock"? Well, now it's to Soulja Boy....maybe that person should be...well, you know.

AMERICA.....

fuck yeah.

the doctor just told me that brett favre can't play for the bears or the vikings because of the nfc central rivalry.

then she told me he should ride off into the sunset, not in those exact words, but that he should, in the words of steve miller band, "take the money and run."

i agree.

in conclusion,

"WHEN I SAY POOP YOU SAY.....

''''''

MERC, YEAH, MERC YEAH"


i think she has a point. if favre comes back, i'm obviously going to root for him, but he retired and he should stay so. it's respectabled. i don't care if you can play again. i don't care if you feel the pressure to roll up again. dude. you had a great, if not the best career.

maybe not the most success...but maybe more than anyone could ask. maybe not the best numbers...but better than almost the rest of the rest...(OH YEAH...REPETiVTIVNESS IS rad....or, as la doctora says, "el mejor". holler pedro. holler.)

so as i watch sportscenter and listen to the doctor talk retard-ED, i decided that gash is toast and toast is tasty...so eat up toast. eat up son.

and to Lars. I see what you says, extra S included, but i fear not. why?

well, on thursday, i was told by a 11 year old to fuck off and that he'd punch me in the face before caring what i said. the ;ast thing i felt was offended. why? because that's the hypocracy i exist in and that;s OK....son

Seriously now...

Where do they get these Olympic events from? I just turned on the qualifiers and there are women running at least 7 or 8 laps around a track involving a few hurdles, one of which ends in a puddle of water...that appears to be there on purpose. Who the hell thinks about these events?

When the Greco-Romans were starting this tradition whilst grappling naked before a crowd of onlookers who would later feed (they just jumped in the puddle again) their bits to the animals if they lost...straight out of Gladiator mofukas....sorry. lost track there.

So where do they come up with these event from? Who was ever like, "You know what would totally throw off the runners? If we put these poles about 3.5 feet off the ground so when they run by the have to jump over them."

I'm strongly considering this event was thought of by the same kind of person that watches figure skating for the falling down. It's along the same lines.

In other news, there is a lot of dog poop on the city streets in NYC. people always talk about the large rats (who are quite friendly) (in the puddle again) perhaps the odor of pee in a lot of places, but no one really ever said that i would have to walk around like my eyes are red and i'm too paranoid to pick up my head as I walk through Thurston Hall. No. There was no warning that there would be poop on the streets on every block.

It got me thinking, what kind of dog poops on the sidewalk? that dog must be (I THOUGHT I JUST SAW SOMEONE DROWN IN THE PUDDLE...I was mistaken). The dog that poops on the street must have a miserable existence. As a suburbian, my dogs always got to sniff the grass for a long time before performing their morning constitutional (thank you). I always thought they quite enjoyed it.

Sidenote, the commentators just declared the name of the aforementioned water jump is...the Water Jump. And the winner just set a new American record!!! I'm impressed considering before 5 minutes ago I was not even aware a sport with a water jump on land existed...but anywho

I always thought my dogs quite enjoyed pooping on grass. I feel bad for the dog that can go on concrete because I feel like that dog doesn't know what it's missing. Plus I have to walk around poop constantly and when I don't look down I'm constantly convinced that I just stepped in poop. That's the last thing I need to worry about as I'm elbow deep in teaching 6th grade summer school right now...but that's an entirely different post that needs to be researched further.

Grinded Gears

You know what really grinds my gears?

French families who ask me to stand up on the train and find a new seat so that they can sit together with their newborn baby.

OK, so maybe that's not the worst thing ever, but come on. It's not like the train was packed to the point where there were no seats at all. There were seats in the same area together, like two aisle seats open and they wouldn't technically be next to each other but they still would, you know? Anyway, it only gets better. So I'm doing my homework like a good boy on the train on the way from the city to the land of suburbia. Obviously, because this is what you do when you are really lazy and don't want to take the elevator from floor 27 to floor 2 to do your laundry, you have it all squeezed into a suitcase that rests above your head on the train. Naturally, this bag is above my head and with the crowding train, my backpack with computer is up there too.

So French lady comes over and is all, "frenchity frenchity french french french" and I'm all like, "I'm sorry what?" and then she's all "Dude I'm french, give me a break" so I'm like, "That's pretty fucking ridiculous" and then she's all "No words, just stares" and I'm all, "Fuck it and fuck you". Needless to say, I was in a worse mood than I thought.

So basically, here is how it works. The train is pretty crowded to begin with and I know eventually I'll have someone sitting next to me, but the train is pretty big, so i'm ok with it. I also tell myself there is little to worry about since I'm on the aisle and whoever wants to sit with me will get to sit on the inside, so I'll be comfortable either way. So about 2 stops into the ride, the Frenchies are hanging out in the aisle walking 2 steps in one direction, then 2 in another with the occasional bump into the shoulder, even though their not a big people. And smell...true to stereotype. I look behind me a few times to see what the deal is and I see a bunch of open aisle seats, so I'm kind of wondering if these people are just going to stand the whole time. Then the french chick taps me on the shoulder with the "Excuse me, would you mind finding another seat so that my husband and I can sit together? You see, we have a baby." Immediately, I'm like you can go fuck yourself for trying to pull that "have some sympathy for me because I'm fertile act" and I want to say no...instead, I ask, "Where should I go sit?" to which she responds, "You can go sit anywhere else." So now I'm thinking not only does she want me seat, but she wants to have some attitude about it and also dismiss my existence to the point where I can just wander up and down a crowded train to find a new seat. Yes, I've said already that there are all open seats all over the train that I am aware of, including the one right behind me, but I wanted to be difficult...and I kind of wanted to pull the old "why me" act too.

So I'm not too happy...also, as stated before, this is when I realize I'm not in that good of a mood for who knows what reason. So after she drops that, "You could sit on the track and the train could run you over for all I care" line, I follow up with my last ditch effort of "Well, these bags up here are mine" to which I get a stare. I let the stare go for like a second and then decide to pop up and sit right behind where I was just sitting. I guess I just wanted to be difficult, or maybe I just wanted them to go away...mostly, I just wanted those fucks to do what any regular person would do and suck it up and sit next to each other in the aisles. You french fuckwad.