Sorry for the lack of updates.  My wireless connection at home has been very spotty as of late, and it’s just been a frustration to get something posted.  I will persevere, however, especially because this story.

Needham High students no longer will get to see their names in the newspaper when they are placed on the Honor Roll for academic achievement.

High School principal Paul Richards has ended the practice of sending the list to the local media.

In an e-mail to students and parents, Richards said that Needham’s high achievement levels have a dark side, creating a competitive culture among students where grades are compared within groups and argued over with teachers.

It’s not just anti-gun folks that like to blame the inanimate object, is it? 

The local paper has a mealy-mouthed editorial on the issue.  Great headline, pretty sorry op/ed. 

I say this as a guy who made the honor roll a grand total of ONE time in high school.  There’s nothing wrong with kids feeling bad about not doing their best.  In fact, isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?  We’re more concerned with self-esteem than self-reliance these days, and that’s a bad trend. 

Conversely, there’s nothing wrong with praising kids who get good grades.  There’s nothing wrong with rewarding excellence.  Instead, we seem to be satisfied with mediocrity or less these days.  It’s disappointing.

A teacher in North Carolina’s been fired for some subliminal messages in a word seach handed out to students. 

One of the parents is talking criminal charges. 

I’m not sure what those would be.  I’m kind of surprised the teacher was fired for his “Destroy America” message.  On a college campus, that would be more likely to get you tenure than get you terminated.

Or maybe it’s asleep at the equation.  Got a call from Harrison’s algebra teacher today… apparently he’s been falling asleep in class. 

I’m not blaming the school for Harrison’s sleepiness (we’re just going to have to try and get him to go to bed earlier), but there is something a little wrong with getting 15-year olds up at 5:30 in the morning so they can make it to school on time.  It’s sort of the same problem I have with making them eat lunch at 9 a.m.  Studies have shown that teenagers fall asleep later than younger children, yet we’re starting high school at 7:30 in the morning, while Andrew’s elementary school starts more than an hour later. 

Again, I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses… I just wonder if it wouldn’t be benefit everyone to start high school later and elementary school earlier. 

In the meantime, Harrison now has a bedtime of 8:30.  He can go up and read for an hour, but at 9:30 it’s lights out. 

According to this study, students at many Ivy League universities graduate with “negative learning” when it comes to American history and civics. 

In non-academic speak… they’re dumber coming out than they are going in.  You’d think for $46,000 a year (the cost of attending Johns Hopkins University) they’d teach the students the basics. 

It’s happening in Wilson County, Tennessee, where Captain John Parker has lost his job after serving two tours of duty in Afghanistan.

I signed up to serve my country,” Parker tells NewsChannel 5 investigative reporter Jennifer Kraus.

And serve he did, which is why he was so shocked at how he was treated when he came back home to Wilson County.

“It just made me feel that the people I was fighting for were the exact people that were taking my job from me,” he adds.

You see, Parker is not just a soldier.

He’s also a teacher who taught criminal justice to high school students and helped coach the school wrestling team. before he was sent to the Middle East with the Army Reserves.

Parker says that before he left, “I just told all the kids, ‘Hey, I’ll be going, but I’ll be back.’”

He went back to Wilson Central High School after his first year-long tour in Afghanistan.

And, after a second tour of duty there, he expected to return to the classroom again.

Parker should have had no problem going back to work thanks to a special federal law that protects soldiers like Parker.

It guarantees that, when they come home from their deployment, they’ll get their old jobs back for at least a year.

But just one month after Parker went back to work, the Wilson County School system told him his teaching contract was not being renewed and he was out of a job.

Wilson County Director of Schools Dr. Jim Duncan, the man who sent the letter informing Parker that he was being let go, insists that “he was not fired.”

Duncan maintains that the teacher-turned-soldier was told not to return to school the next year because there just weren’t enough students signed up for Parker’s class.

But Duncan also admits that he had problems with Parker being sent to Afghanistan not once, but twice.

“It was like we got these classes going and you’re supposed to be the teacher,” Duncan tells Kraus.

That’s not even my favorite quote. This is:

“Could he have said something to his superiors? ‘Look, I really need to get back there. If everything is equal, I need to get back there (to Wilson Central High School) January 3rd because that’s when my class starts and I need to be with those kids for the full semester.’”

Captain Parker’s filed suit against the school district. I wish him well. It sounds like the district needs more role models like him and fewer role models like Dr. Duncan.

That seems to be the message coming from schools in Quebec, according to the attorney for a woman who says her son was suspended for not taking Ritalin.

The school says the student wasn’t suspended for not taking Ritalin, he was suspended for behavioral problems that began after he went off the drug.

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An absolutely disgraceful display of political correctness at the University of Washington. A member of the student senate wanted to honor alumni “Pappy” Boyington for his service to this country. The debate that followed makes me wonder what my children will say when they head off to college.

A couple of highlights:

Jill Edwards questioned whether it was appropriate to honor a person
who killed other people.
She said she didn’t’ believe a member of the Marine Corps was an
example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce.

I would prefer UW turn out Marines than people like Jill Edwards, personally.

Ashley Miller commented that many monuments at UW already
commemorate rich white men.

Pappy Boyington grew up in a blue collar family. And he was part Sioux. But thanks for playing “Blame the White Guy” Ashley.

Deidre Lockman moved to strike the quote from President Roosevelt.
Seconded. Objection.
She said the resolution focused more heavily on the negative aspects of
war and should instead focus on more positive aspects such as the
awarding of the Medal of Honor.

And why was Pappy Boyington awarded the Medal of Honor? From Medalofhonor.com:

“for extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty” while in command of a Marine Fighting Squadron in the Central Solomons Area from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944.”

That heroism included shooting down (at one point) 14 fighters in 32 days. Here’s an example of his bravery.

Typical of Major Boyington’s daring feats is his attack on Kahili airdome at the southern tip of Bougainville on 17 October 1943. He and 24 fighters circled the field persistently where 60 hostile aircraft were grounded, goading the enemy into sending up a large numerically superior force. In the fierce battle that followed, 20 of the enemy planes were shot out of the skies. The Black Sheep roared back to their base without the loss of a single ship.

One more comments from the students at UW.

Mikhail Smirnoff said he supported the resolution. He said the resolution
does not support a final product, but that it only supports the concept of
the monument. He said he understood the sentiment of not wanting to
reward those who fought in the war, but that he thought those who fought
in WWII were heros and that it was a much different war than the
controversial war in Iraq.

This, by the way, came from a guy who appeared to support the proposal. How do you “understand not wanting to reward those” who fought in WWII?

Maybe I’m taking this too personally. After all, my dad’s a WWII vet. But this isn’t a lack of knowing history we’re talking about. This is a callous disregard for anyone who wears the uniform. This is wrong.

The Jawa Report has a response from the student senate president. Here’s a portion:

The blog news and the draft minutes that were posted are inaccurate. First, Ashley Miller’s statements were highlighting, as a point of information, that the majority of our statues are white males, which was an issue previously addressed last year, this is not in any way meant to go against Colonel Boyington. It was noted by the sponsor, Andrew Everett, about Boyington’s heritage later. Jill Edwards made here statements as an individual, and it should not be assumed she speaks for all students. Karl Smith wanted to honor his service as a whole (he risked his life, endured 20 months in a POW Camp) in an effort to bring more support from a number of students who do not morally agree with war. These statements are in public discourse that has been and will always be at the University of Washington to educate on the questions and issues of our society.

So one student was just making a general comment about too many statues of rich, white guys? She wasn’t referring to Boyington? Coulda fooled me. I love the defense of Jill Edwards: well, she was only speaking for herself. Right. Gotcha. And Karl Smith just wanted to talk about Boyington being a POW so people who “oppose war” would get on board.

You know, I don’t think I’d like the support of people who would have preferred we not fight in WWII. What’s next? A formal apology from UW students to the governments of Japan and Germany?

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Sara alerted me to the recent lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma Education Association, seeking to force the state to pay an additional $1 billion a year in education funds.

Look, I’m not sure that the OEA is the best group to judge how much money needs to be spent on our schools. This is the organization that pays it’s state leader $160,521 a year and thinks that’s reasonable.

Besides, and I hate to be the one to tell the OEA this, but I’m sure lots of programs in the state are “underfunded”. Look at the streets you drive on. You’re telling me we’re spending enough on roads?

Well, maybe we are. And maybe we’re spending enough on education. Maybe it’s how the money’s being spent that we should look at, not just how much is being spent.

**edit**

Oh, I forgot. It’s for the children. Jeez.

Either people want to enrich the state’s children and create a viable educated pool of workers for the advancement of the state economy or they want to give the ultra-rich more tax cuts and limit economic progress for themselves and their children. It is really that simple. The lawsuit helps bring the question into sharp focus for all of us here during this upcoming election year.

The ultra-rich? Wonder if that applies to OEA’s David Duvall?

Who says there’s no money in education? Don’t be a teacher, be a union leader. The head of the Oklahoma Education Association made $160,521 last year, according to the NEA’s financial disclosure reports. That’s the second highest paycheck for a state director, by the way. Even the head of the New York branch of the NEA made $8,000 less.

The average salary for an Oklahoma teacher in 2004 was less than $35,000, by the way.

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A middle school student has been suspended after removing a camera in a bathroom at school.

He’s got a five-day unwanted vacation. It’ll be on his permanent record that he stole school property. My opinion is that he did the right thing,” said Mack’s mother, Cindy Champion.

Mac is being punished for taking a camera out of the celing of the boys bathroom that is shared by Jasper County Middle and High School students. The high school principal admits to putting the camera there.

“There was tiles up there and it was cut out in a little circle,” Mac said. “It felt like it was the right thing to do because we were being violated in the bathroom, and I just knew I could trust my mom and she would do something about it.”

“That was the interesting part to me that surprised me — Ms. Massengil, the middle school principal, nor the teachers were aware. No one seemed to be aware besides the principal at the high school,” Champion said. “I had told the high school principal, Mr. Fore, that he needed to come up with another solution — that this wasn’t appropriate. His response to me was he was going to continue to film.”

The Bibb County district attorney says cameras in public bathrooms are legal because schools have more leeway on privacy issues.

So teachers weren’t aware. Neither was the middle school principal. The high school principal apparently never told anybody he was doing this. And the DA says it’s perfectly okay.

Maybe it’s because of the times in which we live, but I’m shocked that the only person who seems to be thinking there’s a possibility that not everything is on the up and up is the boys’ mom. And I’ve gotta tell you, while I wouldn’t have suggested my son simply remove the camera, as a parent I’d be raising hell about my child being photographed while he does his business.

Boy, I am shocked, shocked, I tell ya. To find out that the DC chapter of the Communist Party’s been meeting in the National Education Association cafeteria… it just boggles my mind. I mean, communism just isn’t what I think of when I ponder the NEA.

Socialism, maybe. But not communism.

Okay, you don’t have to. But Joanne Jacobs would appreciate it if you bought her new book.

I’ve been looking forward to this for some time. I’m always interested in new and different educational models, and I’ve been reading Joanne’s blog almost as long as I’ve been writing this one.

My daughter leaves for college in two weeks. Stories like this do not reassure me.

On the first day of class, Professor Michael Vocino announced, “I like dick,” and asked Nelson if he was “queer,” the student says. On the second day, Vocino asked Nelson if he was uncomfortable knowing the professor thought he was “hot.”

A few times during the semester instead of giving the usual educational assignments, Professor Vocino asked me, and a few other male members, to try �making out� with other males and tell the class how it felt. While observing an outside student walk by the classroom with baggy-style jeans on, he offered that he wished men would wear tighter pants because he liked �bums.� Often Professor Vocino would ask members of the class for hugs. In fact, he did an �experiment� to see how people reacted to the intrusion on their personal space. This �experiment� consisted of class members standing as close as they could to each other. He ended the �experiment� with students, again mostly male and including myself, standing as close to him as they felt comfortable.

The teacher is still teaching (although not political science), presumably because he has tenure.

So what happens when a middle school teacher ends the school year as a Mr. and begins the next as a Ms.?

The kids have to deal with it, apparently.

After struggling with her identity since the age of the 7, marrying and becoming a parent of two, and teaching for 12 years, McCaffrey underwent gender reassignment surgery in February and returned to school wearing a jacket and tie to avoid disruption, she said.

“If I came out with this in February, I wouldn’t have been able to teach because it would have caused such a commotion,” McCaffrey said. “I could not be selfish and hurt the kids in the middle of the year.”

Hurting kids at the beginning of the year is fine, apparently.

If Herb McCaffrey wants to become Kerri McCaffrey, more power to him.

Or her. Whatever.

But this is an awful lot to put on middle school kids, many of whom will be freaked out by this.

Let Herb Kerri teach in the high school this year. Or work with another nearby school district to give him her a job. This is a distraction middle school kids needn’t be exposed to.

So what do you do if you’re a parent and get the following email from your first grader’s teacher?

Hello,

George had a pretty good day. He was not sent back to his desk. At lunch time he was pretending to play with guns with another student. We have talked previously about not playing violent games and not pretending to have guns.

George stopped after I spoke to him about it. He is writing a silly book that you’ll get to see on Thursday!

Do you call the teacher and say “thank you thank you THANK YOU for stopping my child from playing ‘violent games’!”

Do you call the teacher and say “what type of of ‘violent game’ was George playing? Was he playing cops and robbers? Was he the cop? And can you have a ‘violent game’ when you’re not actually doing anything other than holding your index finger and thumb as if it were a pistol?”

Or do you say “Good gravy, woman! What the *bleep* is wrong with you??”

I’m somewhere between #2 and #3. And yes, this is a real email. George’s father will be on the show today at 5:20 Eastern to talk about it.

Scary story in the American School Board Journal about an administrator who decided there was just too much competition in the schools. So she got rid of it.

Recently I saw a first-grade teacher hold up a construction paper cutout of the letter M. �Look, boys and girls,� the teacher gushed. �Madison cut straight on the lines and then she glued on glitter to make her letter shiny. Madison wins a place on our star board.� The principal smiled and saw nothing wrong.

That’s because there is nothing wrong. Sheesh.

hat tip to Joanne Jacobs.

The NEA has just wrapped up it’s national convention, where teachers from across the country stood up and called for an end to social promotion, more charter schools, and merit pay.

As if.

Instead, as Michelle Malkin points out, they called for recalling troops from Iraq. They also called for a boycott on Gallo wine, expanding a “pro-public education agenda” within the Republican Party, a study on hazardous fragrances (yes, perfume shall soon be banned in school), defending affirmative action, and a boycott of Wal-Mart.

Thank goodness for organizations like the Association of Professional Oklahoma Educators, for teachers who don’t want to be associated with groups like the NEA.

Spent the afternoon talking about the case of Kevin Francois, the Columbus, GA high school junior suspended for ten days for disruptive behavior after he was not allowed to talk to his mother on his cell phone during lunch.

Michelle pretty much covers all the bases, but I didn’t see her link to the official statement by the school district. Here it is:

The Muscogee County School District has over 3700 military students enrolled. We have a long and strong relationship with Ft. Benning. Spencer High School has the greatest number of military students of any of our schools. All of our counselors have received training in supporting students whose parents have been deployed, and military personnel serve as Partners in Education in over half of our schools.

When the Spencer teacher approached the young man about using a cell phone on campus, contrary to Board of Education policy which is designed to preserve instructional time and decorum in our schools, the young man did not tell the teacher he was speaking to his mother in Iraq. He indicated he would not comply with a request to turn over his cell phone and used profanity. The teacher escorted the young man to the office, where assistant principals tried to get him to calm himself and to cease the use of profanity. It was only at this point that administrators learned he was talking to his mother in Iraq.

The Guidance Department at Spencer High School has arranged for a number of students to receive calls from parents who are deployed. They would have been happy to do this for this young man. The issue here was not so much the use of the cell phone as it was the choices the young man made in handling the situation. We are empathetic to all students whose parents serve in the armed forces; we do have behavior standards which we uphold.

The school has been in touch with personnel from Ft. Benning. We are endeavoring to have the young man readmitted after a three day suspension, which was the first option for him. It was only after greater defiance and profanity that the suspension was extended. We will ask that the student and his guardian sign a behavior contract indicating that he will comply with the same standards of behavior which apply to all of our students. We will continue to be sensitive to the needs of students whose parents serve our country.

A couple of things. First of all, someone’s lying. Francois says he told the teacher he was on the phone with his mother in Iraq. School says he didn’t tell them that until after he had already started cursing at the teacher and assistant principal.

The school district is prepared to reward Mr. Francois for his lying to the media by reducing his suspension from ten days to three days. If this is “enforcing discipline”, I can only imagine what happens when they don’t enforce the rules.

Of course, it could be that the school district is being inundated with calls from military families, wondering what in the heck the teacher was thinking. This could be a form of spin from the school, or spin from the student.

Who do you think is telling the truth?

**Update**

Well, I’m at least partially right.

The 10-day suspension for a Spencer High School student who refused to end a call from his deployed mother in Iraq has been reduced to three days after public outrage was voiced to Muscogee County school officials Friday. Kevin Francois, 17, can return to school on Monday.

See, now the school district can look “compassionate” and “caring” without having to admit they might have been “wrong”.

Actually, I agree with the three day suspension. Francois lost his temper, and he shouldn’t have. I’ve told my son more than once to keep his quiet and his cool if he thinks he’s being treated unfairly at school and to let me talk to the teacher. When it’s an argument between student and teacher, the teacher is always going to win.

Unlike the 11-year old who faced charges for stealing a $1 lollipop, I’ve got no problem with the kids who are in trouble for passing off counterfeit money.

The difference? These kids knowingly did something wrong, as opposed to the first kid, who seems to have made an honest mistake.

Via Zero Intelligence comes the story of an uptight Oregon school that wants to digitally manipulate a photo of a soldier to remove his rifle.

I only wish I were kidding.

New York City’s public schools are going to apologize to a soldier who got hate mail from students after a classroom assignment.

So far the teacher’s not saying much, however. I’d still like to hear his explanation.

You drop a joint and reek of marijuana as you walk into school. Nothing is done. You yell and scream at students. Nothing is done.

But moon your colleagues and you’re fired. Nice to see the school district has their priorities in order.

Join the Civil War Club, Get Arrested!

Joshua Phelps spent the weekend “fighting” off the Confederate Army while playing the role of a Union soldier during a Civil War re-enactment.

Now the Pine Bush High School senior is facing expulsion from school after a security guard spotted Phelps’ musket replica in the back seat of his parked car in the school’s parking lot.

Yep. The zero tolerance policy strikes again.

The 17-year-old - who joined the school’s Civil War Club after seeing a school-sponsored ad encouraging students to get involved with the group - was called down to the assistant principal’s office Tuesday, where he was told that a weapon had been spotted in his car.

Also found inside the vehicle during a search by school officials was a bayonet, rolled cartridges with black powder, and a Union soldier’s uniform.

When you put those things together, you might (if you’re a logical person) come to the conclusion that this was merely an innocent mistake, not worthy of expulsion.

“I actually thought it was kind of stupid, at first, when I heard it was about the musket,” Phelps told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, which first reported the story Wednesday. “I didn’t think I’d get arrested over it.”

But that’s exactly what happened when Town of Crawford police showed up at the school 67 miles north of New York City, where they not only confiscated the musket but handcuffed Phelps and charged him with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon, punishable by up to a year in jail.

Phelps, who was looking to expand his extracurricular activities to beef up his college applications, also was suspended from school for five days.

As for the musket? It could only fire blanks, but that doesn’t matter to one school official.

David Ernst, spokesman for the state School Boards Association, told the AP that even fake guns that are incapable of hurting someone could still cause chaos in a school.

“Districts have to be concerned any time there is an apparent threat to student safety,” he said.

I agree that school districts have to be concerned any time there is an apparent threat to school safety. I don’t believe that gives them license to overreact once they’re aware of the fact that there is no threat.

Call me cynical, but I have a feeling that if this nine year old wanted to hold a pro-Bush meeting at school every week, educators would find some rule prohibiting such a meeting from taking place.

I just hope the Republicans don’t try and be Scrooge-like and find some sort of regulation that prevents this girl from holding her weekly support group meet-up.