More insight on education from the grey lady.

Trying to Find Solutions in Chaotic Middle Schools has one of the better examples of poignant and unflourished journalism about education I've seen in a while.


Last 3 grafs:

The Seth Low seventh graders have their own theories about why middle school scores plummet.

Nadine George, 12, said she is struggling in science class now because she never understood it in elementary school, despite getting good grades on tests. “Not that I knew how to do it, but whatever was in my notes I just copied it down,” she cheerily elaborated.

Jeorge Coronado, 13, said he was distracted now by fights and girls, who were starting to “look mad good.” Fabiola Noel, 12, disclosed that during a recent math class, her mind wandered to the look of her hair. In the note that was torn up in science class, Lillian Safa, 13, had asked a friend why a third girl was ignoring her. Two weeks later, Lillian reported, they are once again friends.

The article itself is focused on a slew of educational trends for middle schools around the city and country, none of which have proven themselves yet.

Now normally, I find newspaper interviews of students patronizing, but for some reason I felt this just ended up being a great example of what middle school is like-- in all its pathetic and miserable glory.

Achievement Gap in NYTM

To remind this blog's readers (I can't believe you still exist, but you do!) about a really, really important Times magazine article discussing the achievement gap. Go read it now! As Ali G would say, "i hope you has listened up, let your mind be opened, peace!"

Nude art deemed offensive; gets teacher canned!

The Times has been on fire with its educational articles recently, revealing just how horrifying American values, as shown in its public schools, can be.

The first piece is the one that, as a certain brother of mine says, makes one want to be a lawyer. A veteran art teacher in the Texas school system took her class to the art museum, only to find herself verbally disciplined, suspended, and her contract under threat of termination because of a few nude sculptures in the gallery.

This is our society. We let our children play with toy guns, watch violent movies and video games, and some of us let them get the crap beaten out of them by way of punishment in school. but NUDE SCULPTURES are unnacceptable? And then of course, a morally and educationally bankrupt school administration stands with the parents and uses the dirty, dirty trick of complaining that the field trip was disorganized/the teacher had other problems on her previously clean record. It's just enough to make one's blood boil, and thik that our public schools should be razed and built again with all the money we're pumping in to foreign conflicts. UGH. Not to mention our pseudo-puritan values.

What were the sculptures, by the way?

"the marble torso of a Greek youth from a funerary relief, circa 330 B.C.; its label reads, “his nude body has the radiant purity of an athlete in his prime.” She passed sculptor Auguste Rodin’s tormented “Shade;” Aristide Maillol’s “Flora,” with her clingy sheer garment; and Jean Arp’s “Star in a Dream.”"

Oh my God! The scuptures had anatomy! Imagine what they would have said had there been Titians and Michelangos on display.

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On a more positive note, my first Saturday morning grammar class was on the successful side. I realized that working with these bright, eager, kids, the problems are 90%pedagogy and 10% management, as opposed to... you know. The other way around.

Today's Science Times...

actually read it cover to cover.

Let me know if you agree that this interview with a departing congressman is not, like, seriously and unexpectedly sad and moving.

And also, for all those educators and sex-advocates (just kidding on the latter [not]!) who are concerned with these abstinence-only pledges and chastity rings and whatnot, this somewhat confusing survey result just goes to show that if anything, teens need an open, frank diaolgue about sex and its consequences, not some mystical born again hocus-pocus bullcrap. Like the pamphlet entitled "God Created Sex" which I found resting on a students' desk after class one day. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.