Let the beatings begin!

When the school year started out our school score was down (gasp) 30 points.  That means the complex equations used to measure school success spit out our score at 30 points less than last year. The worst ever anywhere in the history of NCLB, at least that's the way we on the staff were presented with the information. At the first real staff meeting our administrator beat us up albeit with a smile in her voice.  To call morale low is an understatement.

In order to push scores up we are now subjected to unannounced visits from everyone including, but not limited to principals, assistant superintendents, and superintendents. Fine, come in my room whenever you want but at least have the courtesy to refrain from interrupting a lesson and some feedback would be appreciated. Our bulletin boards, something the district considers a holy grail and sacred cow(maybe a sacred cow holding the holy grail) will be subject to intense scrutiny to make sure they conform to district guidelines. There will be no deviation from district curriculum ever, for any reason. These steps guarantee that students will learn more and thus be better able to pass tests. I know I learned a whole lot from bulletin boards when I was in school. Who needs a teacher when you have huge charts on the walls?

But wait - seems the state made a MISTAKE! Yes, a big giant boo boo imagine that! Our school  dropped FIVE points NOT 30 and our hispanic population always a topic for staff meeting discussions (which could be construed as a civil rights/prejudice issue) actually showed good growth, a goal of ours for years.  Our administrator knew about this for over a week before a memo was issued informing us of the "good news". Oh and the memo also relayed how impressed an assistant superintendent was to see how our boards reflected much better adherence to curriculum than last year. Really, that's their criteria, bulletin boards.  That's their check to make sure we're being good little boys and girls and following the rules. I guess we didn't put up enough crap last year to convince them that we were doing our jobs. Because our test scores did say that we had done our jobs. For example, my partner and I taught all the fifth graders math last year and every student except 3 scored proficient or advanced. We even had one student with a perfect score. Pretty damned good work!  But no pats on the back without some smacks to the head is the attitude of the district.

 Of course no meeting was held to celebrate, no praise for a job well done (we did drop 5 points to 827- 800 being the goal and we are still in Program Improvement - figure that out). Just a lousy memo after most of the staff had been informed via the grapevine and many of us had been on the state website days before to see for ourselves. Leadership is AWOL.

So as my husband says,"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

A Fairy Tale

Not long ago in the vastness of time, a little girl was born in a valley in the the most powerful kingdom of its time. She was one of many born during these years. The little girl lived in house with her parents and siblings. She wore dresses to school and changed into play clothes when she got home. Her neighborhood was full of children both boys and girls and they all played together. These were the innocent days of a childhood not cut short by work as childhood had been for her grandmother a  few decades earlier. The little girl’s parents both worked hard to provide her and her siblings with experiences they had never had. The mother of the little girl was the only mother on her block that worked. Because of that, the family did things of which most of her friends never dreamed.

As the little girl became a teenager she began to be aware of injustices in the mighty kingdom and a terrible war that raged beyond the kingdom’s borders.  At the dinner table each night the television news reported riots and unrest on college campuses and body counts from the war. She learned that women didn’t have the rights and opportunities that men  did although her parents told her she could do or be anything she wanted. 

Over time the powerful kingdom was forced by its subjects to correct injustices and to end the bloody war. For many years women rose into positions of power and peace ruled the land. The little girl grew up and had a daughter of her own whom she taught to be smart, independent, and cognizant of her rightful place in society.

Sadly, by the time the daughter was grown, times had changed. The kingdom was again mired in a decades long  war far beyond its borders and there was a movement by the rich and powerful to turn back time, to limit the civil rights of all the kingdom’s people.  Women were  targeted by those whose religions preached the supremacy of men. 

Would-be kings harkened back to what they identified as the golden age of their kingdom.  They pointed to low crime and happiness in a society where everyone went to church and mothers stayed home with their children. How wonderful it used to be before teenaged girls got pregnant and women went to college and on to jobs displacing men from their rightful role. If only mothers would stay home again and raise their children with a firm and godly hand the kingdom could once again enjoy the idyllic times so many remembered.

But these were lies the would-be kings told the people. They knew the people had forgotten or never learned about the injustices and crimes carried out by the king’s ministers when the little girl was small. The prejudices and rights violations that marked that era were conveniently forgotten. The dukes and earls that ruled the many royal states began to proclaim the end of certain rights especially for women. Incredibly the people applauded the reactionary policies comforted by the lords’ assurances of better lives for all if injustice for some prevailed. No one rioted in the streets or demonstrated or seemed to care about the coming end of liberty and justice for all. 

Just as the little girl had become an adult infused with hope for the future she now grew old disheartened by the return of prejudice and unjustice in a kingdom once revered for its freedoms.  The greedy lords of the kingdom grew richer and more powerful than ever, despoiling the land and disenfranchising the citizens. The little girl, now old and forgotten hoped to live long enough to see the people again rise up and demand that peace and justice rule the kingdom once again. How long, she wondered, would it take?

Stop and Go

I recently conducted a little experiment while driving around my city. Firstly I should admit that I am an opportunistic driver. I take advantage of every green light, especially left hand turn arrows. That may change the route to my destination but it beats waiting at a red light.

I decided I would try an alternate strategy to see if it made any difference in the time it takes to get around town. So this week I calmly drove the speed limit and adhered to my usual route to and from work and the gym and other places. I listened to a book and breathed and generally drove as if I had all the time in world.

Here's what I discovered: I was stopped at every red light from my house to work. Driving the speed limit I never hit green lights. It took 5-10 minutes longer to get to work which is 6.2 miles from my house. This week I have spent what seems like hours waiting at red lights burning $4.50 a gallon gasoline. On the up side I've had time to check email and text while at red lights. I never did that before because I was actually driving. Boredom  turned me into iPhone junkie almost overnight. I'm thinking this is not really a good thing.  I've also been able to listen to lots more of my audio book while waiting for lights to change. A mixed blessing given the books I've downloaded recently.

Obvious to me at least, the city does not time the lights to encourage an even flow of traffic. At least it doesn't if you drive the speed limit. Now, if I drive in my usual style looking ahead at lights and trying to hit green ones I can avoid lots of wait time. However, in order to hit the greens I have to drive five to ten miles OVER the speed limit, ten being the key to avoid the most red lights. Even then I squeak through on yellows sometimes. Perfectly legal.

If I were a conspiracy theorist I might imagine that the city wants me to speed so they can collect revenue from speeding tickets. But I've never gotten a speeding ticket so that theory is out. Maybe they want me to stop at all the mini-mall corners and look at the shops. Nah, too many lights are in residential areas. I can't really figure it out except to conclude that traffic engineers are, to put it bluntly incompetent.

Next week I'm calling off my experiment. I don't like spending so much extra time in the car, I hate listening to the radio, I hate driving slowly (I grew up in the age of V-8 engines with horsepower), and waiting endlessly at red lights just makes me irritated, harshes my mellow if you will.

Vroom! Vroom!