Fall semester is a wrap, well, except for all the grading. Last day of classes. Two dudes in the hallway. “If I’m ever a teacher,” the first says, “I’ll probably be the worst of all time.” Second, “That’s terrible self talk.”
Overheard
Reply
Category Archives: Teaching and Education Reform
This Is Not The Way To Help Depressed Teenagers
By Darbe Saxbe. Filled with important insights.
A Pastor, Comedian, and Educator Walk Into a Bar
And compare notes.
The pastor says, “I can tell when my congregation is with me. When they’re watching and listening intently, we’re connected.”
The comedian says, “I can tell when my audience is with me. When they’re watching and listening intently, we’re connected.”
The educator says, “I can tell when my students are with me. When they’re watching and listening intently, we’re connected.”
One never arrives as a teacher. On the best days, a distinct majority watches and listens intently. And the connection is strong. More often, some watch and listen intently, while others are elsewhere. The eternal challenge is tilting that balance.
I See You
Alternating this afternoon between reading student papers and watching college football.
And reading this email from a Somali-American student of mine. “I just saw my grade and your feedback on it. I appreciate the well thought out and thorough feedback! I’ll be sure to apply it to my next paper! It feels nice to have educators in higher Ed that actually read my work with thoughts opposed to my high school.”
The most important roles I play are all related—listener, reader, assessor. “Professing” is overrated.
I have 53 students this semester. A lot of high school teachers have 153. I teach 12 hours a week. Most high school teachers teach 25. High school students aren’t truly listened to or read closely because there’s too many of them and too little time.
The distinguishing feature of the factory model of education, where secondary students come at you in waves of thirty every hour, is that it’s impersonal.
Olympia School District’s Learning Plan
A focus on equity is laudable, but this is riddled with jargon and lacking in specificity. Given this muddled, vague language, my money is on the K-12 status quo continuing unabated.
Sentences to Ponder
“In Canada and Japan, public-university tuition is now about $5,000 a year. In Italy, Spain and Israel, it’s about $2,000. In France, Denmark and Germany, it’s essentially zero.”
From “Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault is That?”
From the Newaukum River to the Charles
Given the cultural differences between Onalaska, WA and Cambridge, MA, three thousand miles may as well be thirty thousand.
Maybe someday Harvard-bound Brooklyn Sandrindge will make a film about her Onalaska to Cambridge journey. I cycled all around Onalaska, WA last Saturday. There may be more cows in Lewis County than people. It’s as small, rural, and politically conservative as it gets.
I spent the summer between my sophomore and junior college years doing internships in Boston, often taking the “T” to Cambridge on Friday nights to listen to street music, eat pizza by the slice, and browse used book stores.
Cambridge is a wee bit bigger, more urban, and progressive than Onalaska. Sandrindge’s transition will not be easy, but I’m guessing she’ll rise to the occasion.
Purdue Math Professor Has Salary Reduced to $0
Among the documentation detailing the reasons why, there’s this gem.
I’m skeptical at just how upset the students in the second class were.
Sometimes I am an absent-minded professor, but I’ve never forgotten a class. Then again, I make The Good Wife do all the shoveling.
Another Shrinking Private Liberal Arts College
Strong opening from a Los Angeles Times story on Whittier College’s woes.
“The grounds of Whittier College are lush and the buildings stately. But the once-bustling quad is often all but empty these days, students say, and inside the Wanberg Hall dormitory, carpets smell musty, the WiFi is spotty, and 25 students share two restrooms with toilets that frequently break down and take ages to fix.”
If you’ve been following the decline of modestly endowed private liberal arts colleges, you know the rest of the story, including declining enrollment, plunging revenue, a divided board, a president under fire, the elimination of some sports (and subjects of study), and the selling of the president’s house.
Why would anyone shopping colleges choose one on the financial ropes? That’s the tipping point the bottom third of private liberal arts colleges are trying desperately to avoid. Similarly, if you were wanting to making a charitable contribution to a college or university, would you choose one with an uncertain future?
The Los Angeles Teacher Strike Explained
It’s really the Los Angeles Unified School District support staff that are striking for livable wages. And 89% of the students’ families support them. Because they are intimately familiar with the challenges of trying to make ends meet in one of country’s most expensive cities.
As reported here:
“The parents see their lives mirrored in the struggles of the bus drivers, cafeteria workers and classroom aides walking the picket lines — working-class residents who take on multiple jobs to survive in Southern California.
‘If you’re not making massive six-figure salaries, then, yeah, it’s hard,’ Ms. Cruz, 33, said. “How can you not support their cause?”
The strike has sharply illustrated the economic divide in modern Los Angeles, where low-wage workers can barely scrap together rent while affluent professionals blocks away are willing to pay $13 for a coconut smoothie. In this case, the school district’s working-class parents and school workers are on the same side of the divide.”
Support staff are seeking a 30% increase in pay while the district has countered with 23% over several years.
Pressing Pause 