As a teacher, I already have enough to do just to teach my students history and engage in the day-to-day minutiae of managing a classroom. I don't need to be monitoring these additional factors that the Brits are going to impose upon schools (and ultimately, upon teachers) in the very near future.

Schools will be made to keep records of teenage pregnancy rates, pupils' drug problems, criminal records and obesity levels under government plans to give parents a true picture of children's lives.

The ideas, set out in a discussion document from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, suggest schools would become accountable for 18 new targets, from bullying and neglect, to what happens to pupils after they leave school. Sources said the 10-page document, entitled Indicators of schools' performance in contributing to pupil wellbeing, calls for Ofsted inspectors to judge schools on the wide range of measures in addition to existing criteria such as exam results and exclusion rates. The measures could be implemented by Ofsted from 2009, and suggest that schools would become broadly responsible for children's safety, enjoyment and happiness.

So let's see here -- now teachers are going to be somehow held responsible for student "extra-curricular activities" like their sex lives, drug use, and off-campus diet. Schools will be rated not just upon academic indicators, but also upon these "indicators of pupil well-being" -- in other words, based upon criteria that are realistically beyond the control of school officials.

Take that teen pregnancy one. My experience is that most students do not become pregnant at school. We can teach abstinence (our current method here in texas) or supply socialized birth control on top of extensive sex education (the British method), but we cannot stop teenagers from "putting Tab A into Slot B". We are not in control of the diet of students outside of a school setting, or whether or not they do drugs away from school.

Indeed, many of these indicators are less related to school factors than they are to socio-economic or cultural ones. Why make tracking and remedying them the responsibility of relatively low-paid teachers -- most of whom are not trained to remedy them in the first place?

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For abuse of her position to politically indoctrinate her students and push her agenda of getting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas disinvited as a graduation speaker at University of Georgia.

Associate professor Janet Frick said she was using her two psychology lectures Monday to educate students about the history of Thomas' appointment to the Supreme Court.

"They were barely born when this was going on," Frick said. "They don't know some of this history. We would do our students a favor to educate them on what took place and on each side. It would be doing our job as an institution to examine these issues more fully."

Excuse me, but what on earth is a professor of psychology doing lecturing on US history and political science? Doesn’t she, as a part of her professional obligation to her students, need to be teaching her students about (dare I suggest it) psychology and not her own political agenda? Frick is, of course, more than welcome to speak all she wants about Clarence Thomas and the false charges made by Anita Hill – but not during class time when she is being paid to speak about psychology. But to do so in the classroom is nothing short of propagandizing a captive audience in a Maoist fashion.

H/T NROÂ’s Phi Beta Cons

Posted by: Greg at 10:35 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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These stories always concern me. After all, this kid seemd pretty normal and well-adjusted, and was doing well in school.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- A high school senior collected enough supplies to carry out a bomb attack on his school and detailed the plot in a hate-filled diary that included maps of the building and admiring notations about the Columbine killers, authorities said Sunday.

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal, said the town's police chief, Randall Lear.

The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said. Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.

"The only thing left was delivering the bombs," the police chief said.

Schallenberger kept a journal for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.

He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Lear wouldn't detail what was on the tape except to say Schallenberger was an angry young man.

"He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him -- the rich boys with good-looking girlfriends," Lear said.

Clearly there was something up with this kid. How was it missed? Thank God his parents kept close enough tabs on him to discover the plan in time and report them to the police.

On a related note, I wonder if Obama and his supporters rush to the defense of this young man for engaging in activities that will simply be an embarrassment at middle age? Or does THIS bomber merit their condemnation?

Posted by: Greg at 10:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Here's an interesting church-state issue.

An Ohio middle school teacher says he won't obey an order to remove a Bible from view of students.

John Freshwater said Wednesday he agreed to remove a collage from his classroom that included the Ten Commandments, but that asking him to remove the Bible on his desk goes too far.

Officials with the Mount Vernon School District say they don't oppose religion but are required by the U.S. Constitution not to promote or favor any set of religious beliefs.

Freshwater says being forced to keep the Bible out of sight would infringe on his rights.

Since I started teaching, there has always been a Bible in my classroom Indeed, it has been a necessary part of my teaching material. Back when I taught English, it was a useful tool for bringing in literary references and linguistic choices made by authors who were raising biblical imagery. Teaching history, I ind it useful to refer to certain elements of the Old and New Testaments when relating back to issues in Middle Eastern history (especially the ancient period) and the Christianization of the Roman Empire.

And yes, I do read it at times during my personal time during the day.

But I don't know how I feel about placing it front and center on a teacher's desk by itself, rather than on a book shelf or amongst other books. And this story doesn't give a whole lot of details about the situation and why its presence has become a problem.

Any reaction from readers?

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One problem with getting laptops into the hands of students -- especially younger students -- has been the size and weight of the equipment. After all, there is a certain difficulty associated with giving a child a piece of equipment that is over 10% of their weight and 1/3 their height. But now HP is looking to solve that problem.

One more of the world's biggest technology companies is clamoring to enter the growing market for pint-sized computers targeted mainly for pint-sized customers. Hewlett-Packard Co., the No. 1 seller of personal computers worldwide, said Tuesday it's throwing its weight behind a new class of miniaturized laptops, a fledgling market already populated with products from Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor company, and Asustek Computers Inc., the world's largest maker of computer motherboards.

The machines are so new the industry hasn't settled on a name for low-cost and scaled-down laptops used primarily for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions like word processing.

Intel has labeled them "netbooks," and it expects more than 50 million netbooks to be in circulation by 2011.

HP executives say their new machines, which go on sale later this month, are an important piece of the Palo Alto-based company's effort to build market share in schools, where machines had to be smaller and cheaper without losing too many functions.

This will, of course, lead us back to the push for using computers instead of textbooks -- a development I would support. After all, the ability to upload and download various assignments, along with the ability to update texts with new information, would be great for educators and students alike. If we can only get past the cost issue, I think it is doable. And with students currently being issued as much as $500 worth of textbooks every semester, is the cost of a laptop really any more outrageous?

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A Letter to the Editor in today's Houston Chronicle captures the sentiments of this teacher and every other teacher I know.

Tired of being scapegoat

The March 29 editorial article "Back to school" is another example of placing the blame for failing students entirely on teachers instead of dealing with the social issues that are the actual cause. I was highly insulted by the statement that "all students will benefit when educators drop the racial, ethnic and class biases" that we supposedly have, thus causing us to lower our expectations for students. That is utter nonsense. I have been teaching disadvantaged students of various races and ethnicity for six years, and I have never expected less of them than I would of students who are Anglo or more affluent. The same is true of my colleagues.

I am tired of being the scapegoat for those who do not have the fortitude to take on the real issues! The only students I, and other teachers, fail are those who choose to fail. The real truth is that many students are not motivated to learn and do not value education. Teachers continually offer after-school tutorials for failing students, but few attend. Also, teachers spend a fair amount of time waking up students and attempting to get them back on task. When I question students about their sleepiness, the usual response is that they stayed up until 1 a.m. or later. Is that my fault?

Teachers are evaluated on the basis of the TAKS scores and failure rates of their students, so it is absurd to believe that teachers would allow students to fail simply because of their race or ethnicity. The statement that teachers have class biases is even more ridiculous. If checked, the editorial board would find that many teachers, because of their low pay, are economically disadvantaged as well! All of the teachers I know, or have ever known, want their students to be successful in school.

Our tax dollars would be better spent on programs that help students realize how valuable education is, that deal with the teen drug problem and help struggling parents with their children. Teachers are caring, giving people who want the best for all children.

SHERRY LLOYD
Houston

I might quibble about some of the policy suggestions at the end, but not much. The rest of the letter, though reflects my attitude on the matter exactly.

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