Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1

[skjl47]

There weren't any elevators?

Hello; This was back in the year 2000 and I do not recall if there were elevators. Also may be some rule against using an elevator in a fire. Best I can recall is the sensors on elevators that tell them which floor to stop at are infared. I think the fear is the heat of a fire might cause an elevator door to open on a burning floor.
But regardless they were not willing to change anything and we were lucky that there were no fires that year.

 

[jaws7777]

Did they proved it was heroine(I don''t know what it looks like)? Being a diabetic I can't help but wonder if it was insulin. Did she admit to it?

Krich's description.

Do diabetics normally nod off into a stupor after they have their insulin shots?

Plus all the crap that fell out of her bag when she nodded off. Best part apparently this is the 1st time shes done this.

Hello; Unfortunately this is not a new concept among the "professional education experts" . At least two decades + ago this sort of notion was in vogue among the higher ups in the states where I taught. Turns out not to have been too bad with many of the special Ed students as few of them were trouble makers. There were some potentially bad situations with students with a physical handicap that the bosses did not want to acknowledge. I will give an example later.
The worst for me as a teacher was the deliberate spread out placement of trouble maker students into all classes. That way each of my classes had a few unruly students so the disruptions went on pretty much every day and all day long.
At faculty meetings I suggested several times that we put the proven trouble makers into one group (class). That way each teacher would only have to babysit them in one class a day with the other five classes being allowed to calm enough for actual education to happen. I was told such a thing would be against the "rights" of those students and that the good students would "bring up" the behavior of the rowdy students.
I asked about the rights of the well behaved students to have an opportunity for a proper education but cannot tell you what the answer might have been as the bosses never gave me a clear answer.

Back too the handicapped student issue. At one high school I taught on the second floor. It was a big school with maybe 1200 to 1500 students. During evacuation drills there were only two stairwells at each end of the school. Not a problem as the stairs were plenty wide enough. My class room was to go down one stairs. Turns out there was a student with serious mobility issues. He had to use two crutches and moved slowly. Not his fault of course but during drills he pretty much blocked dozens of students as he slowly made his way down the stairs. Really slowed down the evacuation.
In a faculty meeting I pointed this safety issue out and suggested perhaps he have classes only on the ground floor. Seems his right for inclusion was more important than a potential safety issue. I then suggested that perhaps a couple of us stout male teachers be assigned to carry him down the stairs. Seems that would do something to his dignity.

So the bosses hid behind the the excuse that it was unfair for the troubled kid smh good point about the rights of the other kids. Smh

 

[Ulu]

I have an idea that maybe matriculation shouldn't be in classes anymore. It's just too one-size-fits-all. Stagger it more. Make it less ceremonial. More lucrative.

The manufacturing business adopted logical scheduling procedures and positive motivational influences eons ago, and I think education would benefit. Also the herd mentality of public schools is offensive and degrading. There is a difference between team spirit and mob instinct.

I attended 14 different schools all over the states, and am married to a career teacher. I have known many. Teachers and schools are all very different IME. Nowadays Administrators can rarely handle real behavioral problems. The state puts them in constant trouble with catch-22 situations & it's a total boondoggle. If you send a kid home suspended, the school loses per diem from the state! But if you allow disruptions test scores will plunge and the state will dock you for that. Plus you could find a squad of sign toting women on your coat tail yelling racist, bigot, etc. into a TV camera.

Half the kids in some schools should be suspended, but somehow people think the government owes them free babysitting service for their delinquents. We do have "continuation schools" but they are not reform schools. Mainly legally mandated babysitters who couldn't get better work.

There is no good solution IMO. Just kind useless ones and harsh alienating ones.

But there ARE solutions if we can take politics out of the picture.

People seem to believe that a broad system of inexpensive private schools would breed private theft of public cash and failure of the public system. But the current system of failing public schools guarantees government corruption. There's too much money in one pot. That's dangerous. It causes fear and worry. It guarantees the focus will be on money uber alles.

State exams are important, but state schools are a crime IMO. We should promote education, and support it, but not run it. The government has enough rules but not enough heart.

 

[imabot]

State exams are important, but state schools are a crime IMO. We should promote education, and support it, but not run it. The government has enough rules but not enough heart.

Charter schools?

 

[skjl47]

state puts them in constant trouble with catch-22 situations & it's a total boondoggle. If you send a kid home suspended, the school loses per diem from the state! But if you allow disruptions test scores will plunge and the state will dock you for that.

Hello; So very true. Some schools I was in had what they called in-school suspension. A way around expulsion. The student comes to school so is counted present. Problem was the capacity of these in-school suspensions were two fold. One was the capacity was too small. A few of the worst behaved students were in the program within a week of a term which left plenty of other bad behavior from other students and no real option. The second issue was who had to supervise these in school suspension rooms. Turned out it was the teachers who had to give up planning periods to baby sit the rooms.

In one state where I taught for two years there was an interesting situation. I had retired in KY but still was willing to work. A school in another state needed a certified biology teacher so I went there. The first year was much better than the second year. That first year I taught AP Biology and other science courses in which the students had to take the end of term achievement tests. My students did OK in the sciences sections so I was invited back a second year. In the mean time they had hired a woman fresh out of college and gave her the AP Biology and other classes. Made sense I guess in that while I had filled a pressing need for a certified person the previous year, she was potentially a long term solution and I was already old.
That second year they gave me the classes in which students would not be tested at end of term. In some words they dumped the boneheads and slackers on me. I made it thru the year but was glad to move on as I was wasting my time.

 

[skjl47]

Charter schools?

Hello; I do not have any experience with them so cannot say for sure. I tend to take most anything the "experts " say with lots of skepticism. There is a bottom line with any sort of school which is discipline and real grades. By discipline I refer to some way to quickly and efficiently deal with disruptions which most public schools do not in my experience. Real grades are those based on actual performance with promotion based on achievement and not on the "social promotion" scam so common for many decades.

I taught for one year at the college level late in my career. It was so refreshing after serving time in the public schools. One example here. I would announce an exam in either the freshman geology class or freshman physical science classes. I would offer to be available in my classroom the evening before exams for any student who wanted to review the material. To my very pleasant surprise something near half the students would wisely show up and spend an hour or two with me. And it happened every time I offered a review session.

Such a contrast from one public school where the principal called me in and wanted to know if I was planning to fail any students. I gave him a list and tried to explain why. He was not interested, merely informing me he had the authority to change the grades as he saw fit. So someone who had not spent any time with my students intended to talk me into changing grades. I did not change the grades and did fail 17 students. I did however go to the school clerks office and get 17 change of grade forms. I signed all 17, left the names blank and handed them to the principal and told him to do what ever he wished. Funny I did not get a Christmas card from him.

 

[imabot]

Hello; I do not have any experience with them so cannot say for sure. I tend to take most anything the "experts " say with lots of skepticism. There is a bottom line with any sort of school which is discipline and real grades. By discipline I refer to some way to quickly and efficiently deal with disruptions which most public schools do not in my experience. Real grades are those based on actual performance with promotion based on achievement and not on the "social promotion" scam so common for many decades.

They seem to be a hybrid of public and private schools, taking some money from the government but being owned privately. Seems to be along the lines of what Ulu was thinking about.

I taught for one year at the college level late in my career. It was so refreshing after serving time in the public schools. One example here. I would announce an exam in either the freshman geology class or freshman physical science classes. I would offer to be available in my classroom the evening before exams for any student who wanted to review the material. To my very pleasant surprise something near half the students would wisely show up and spend an hour or two with me. And it happened every time I offered a review session.

Must be the money incentive to do well and not have to repeat any classes.

 

[Ulu]

You can't give away money, but there must be incentives in the marketplace. If a private school can't make a profit, give better classes, and still cost less than a government run anything, it's because it's overtaxed by the government.

 

[Ulu]

TOLKIEN

If you are a fan of his writing, languages, linguistics, do not miss this film.

As a romantic drama it's 100% above the usual modernist claptrap, but the real story is the social and mental progress of a young scholar with unusual ideas.

 

[krichardson]

Good Lord! I just saw a video clip on social media of someone dropkicking Arnold Schwarzenegger.....from behind!