In a speech on Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Wisconsin high school student ripped pages from a Bible. He was suspended and told he can’t return to class without being cleared by a psychologist.
(Classmate Elle Jacobson said:) “He said he was going to do something that our little stupid minds wouldn’t be able to comprehend. He took the Bible and pulled it out in front of the class and first he started ripping out pages, and then he started ripping out sections. Everybody looked stunned. I was stunned. I was shocked.”
Parker Principal Dale Carlson says the boy was suspended for “other behaviors” in addition to ripping up the Bible.
The boy may have intended to illustrate Emerson’s condemnation of conformity, points out Liz Ditz at I Speak of Dreams. Perhaps he knew that his home town, Janesville, Wisconsin, is the home of the Bible-distributing Gideon Society.
I guess having a last name for a first name warps you, like the Boy Named Sue. Nowhere did I advocate physical violence against somone for expressing an opinion. Under some circumstances an insult is precursor to an assault and a prudent person prepares. When did you start hating your father, Miller?
Walter, you wield that alliteration like a left leaning poet
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> I’d rather be drearily cunning than just plain dreary.
They’re not mutually exclusive.
> As usual, however, it’s your tone which gets my attention far more than your content, although sometimes the two are indistinguishable.
That certainly relieves you of the burden of addressing the content of my posts. I can understand that response though. When you depend on public apathy and public confusion there’s really no percentage in encouraging any perception of human falability.
> While we wait for NCLB and your postings to take effect in their efforts to reform all of public education, if it’s okay with you, a few of us who are professionals and actually good at what we do would like to fight with the army we have and see if all the possible learning could take place, in the meantime.
You’re good at what you do? How do you know? Was there some objective measure of your performance or is the question sufficiently impertinent as to be beneath notice?
You know, your attempt to see to it that all possible learning takes places isn’t quite the same thing as sufficient learning taking place. That’s the point of NCLB which was necessitated in no small part by a whole segment of society that enjoyed the privilige of self-defining success. The privilege was abused and now it’s been circumscribed. Don’t make the cut now and there’s an ugly possibility of repercussions.
One of the nice things about having to meet standards is that the excresences stand out in bold relief. Makes them easier to plane off which, to quote Burt Rutan, improves performance by adding lightness.
Mr. Miller, I appreciate your response. Thanks. But I think you’re confusing a couple issues.
Atheism is an unpopular belief and some people find that the expression of that belief offensive. I agree with you that that happens to be their problem.
You could have been more polite to that colleague who offered you the chance to come to Christ, but I don’t think you were out of line. Your speech was a match for hers, just at the opposite pole.
In a public school where the Bible is read, the works of Christopher Hitchens should also be allowed. Atheism should have equal time with Christianity.
You seem to think that the student was suspended for being an atheist and for expressing that view. If that were the case, I’d be on his side myself. But that’s not what he did. He didn’t quote from Bertrand Russell or from Christopher Hitchens.
He didn’t wave a copy of the Bible and declare, “This book is full of nonsense and lies. It justifies slavery and prejudice. It’s been the cause of war and bloodshed for centuries. We’ll be better off when the day comes when we see this book for what it is and reject it totally.”
No, what he did was deface a sacred text. Though that act might be expressive, it goes far beyond words in impact and intent.
Name calling, too, is expressive, but it’s not the kind of free speech that should be protected in a school. Name calling is a substitute for criticism, a lazy one, and is done simply for the purpose to offend, not to express a belief. Ripping pages isn’t speech; it’s a stunt done to offend. Though speech should be protected, mere offensiveness should not be.
If this student is motivated to offend, he should be required to do it with words and ideas. Real speech. If he doesn’t know how to do that, he should watch the O’Reilly Factor on Fox.
Let’s say there’s a student who has the view that whites have higher IQ’s than Blacks. Should he be allowed to express that view in class? I think so. If he talks about statistics and genetics and quotes research, what he says can be discussed and rebutted. But if he stands at the podium and simply cracks racist jokes, no, I don’t think a school should tolerate that. Do you?
Speech should be protected, not offensive behavior, especially when the two are needlessly linked.
Expecting discourse to be civil in the classroom is not unreasonable.
Allen, like most teachers I know (undoubtedly none you’re acquainted with), I would welcome access to even more correct, objective measurements of my students’ learning. As it is, I rely on ACT, SAT, AP, and State tests. A strong majority of my students perform at acceptable to above-acceptable levels on these tests. Because I DO know what I’m doing, it would only strengthen my position to have even more valid feedback on the effectiveness of what I do. Testing at the district level, done seven times a year and in alignment with state required objectives, also provides valuable feedback for what should stay the same and what should be revised (kaizen, perhaps?).
Of course, your tone indicates to me that my students could graduate after my 9th grade English class alone, go on to an Ivy League, solve world hunger, cure cancer, and make space travel commonplace, and you would remain unconvinced that they actually learned anything in my class. That’s the luxury of your UNscientific method. Sad, not dreary, but nonetheless, unscientific. I just wish it were satire.
One of my prides is that I was a VIP, Voyager Important Person, a backer of the Voyager Round The World on one tank of gas flight. See what free men can do. I shook the hand of Wrong Way Corrigan at the VIP celebration.
> I would welcome access to even more correct, objective measurements of my students’ learning.
And I’d welcome access to even more correct, objective measurements of your competence.
Who’s the better teacher, you, your next-door neighbor or the guy across town? Human variability dictates that teacher competence fall along a bell curve and I just don’t see any value to the public in paying the people at one end of the bell curve the same as people at the other end or paying them at all. Even less do I see any value to the public in paying people whose contribution to the education of children is tangential or illusory.
My tone, since you seem so interested, indicates I don’t give much credence to sniffing dismissal or thin-lipped disapproval as substitutes for measurements of competence. I don’t really care how much you venerate your own magnificence, I only care what objective observation and measurement prove.
In case you’re unclear on the concept it’s proving your assertion that’s at the core of science, not the Doctor of Thinkology degree on your wall.
allen,
Please provide an example of correct, objective measurement of teacher competence. If there is a different tool you deem effective for measuring student achievement (if teacher competence is separate from student achievement – I honestly can’t tell if you see the two as separately measurable or not), please provide that example, also. I’m interested in an existing tool or in one you could describe, based on your own qualifications for said tool (in case, as may BE the case, it doesn’t exist yet).
Seriously. I’d appreciate it.
z
Of course student achievement and teacher competence are separate. But if you want objective measures of teacher competence you’re just going to have to wait until the concept of professional competence goes from controversial, rather borderline hysteria-inducing, to the perfectly obvious.
Until fairly recently about the only professionals who had much of a clue about, or interest in, school/district quality were realtors. When educational quality becomes an equally important consideration for educators you’ll see methods of separating the sheep from the goats. Until then you’ll just have to comfort yourself with your presumptions.
I’ll take that as a very long, but not as convoluted as usual, “no, i do not have a practical answer for measuring student success or teacher competence.” That definitely makes your position easier to maintain. Still not a very good example of scientific method. That’s cool. As I said earlier, in the meantime, while we wait for NCLB and/or your posts here to take effect and improve educators and therefor the learning that takes place in schools, I think I’ll fight with the army I have. I’m comfortable with that presumption, and while you obviously aren’t comfortable with it, until you can at least offer a measuring tool for improvement, you’ll have to live with it. I mean, technically, you are living with it … you’re alive, it’s what’s happening right now. And that is a logical assumption.
Zuzu said:
“I’ll take that as a very long, but not as convoluted as usual, “no, i do not have a practical answer for measuring student success or teacher competence.—
Two words: TIMSS and PISA.
Those aren’t words, they’re acronyms.
. However, in all sincerity, I remain very appreciative of your input, R. I would welcome – as would most teachers worth their salt – any additional effective, correct feedback regarding how my students (and by extension, my teaching methods) are doing.
Just curious, R – agreed, completely, that 500 out of 100,000 is competition. Where, however, do the other 95,500 go?
Two short paragraphs is “very long”, hey?
That puts your grammar cop pose into perspective well enough. The preference for style over substance indicates a dearth of both.
> Two words: TIMSS and PISA.
Yeah, they do measure attainment but I was thinking more along the lines of earned run average and runs batted in: individual skill measures that contribute to the overall – team – goal. Until individual skills are measured there’s no way to differentiate, objectively, the good from the bad.
allen, imnsho, R *is* unhappy with public education in the United States. That’s fine. Not to the same extent, but nonetheless, still, so am I. I think some people *want* to be unhappy with public education in the United States. There’s an important difference between being and wanting to be (some would call it tone) whenever you’re considering data or the lack thereof, or possible.
Two paragraphs instead of two letters, yes, I’d say perspective, in terms of relativity, has a lot to do with the former seeming long. The best write with style and substance. I don’t claim to create it, but I can spot it.
Zuzu said:
“Where, however, do the other 95,500 go?”
They get into the second tier, the third tier, and so on. It applies equally to schools and jobs. It’s pretty brutal, but my point is that here in the US we’re constantly treated to self-congratulatory crap about how competitive X, Y or Z is. Most of the time it’s nothing of the kind, and it devalues effort (and intelligence and ability).
The self-esteem crap that we have to listen to – “I AM SPECIAL”, “WE IS SPECIAL” etc. – has a lot to do with devaluing effort, IMHO. You listen to this rubbish, and then you see people who are genuinely smart and hardworking, and many of them are the humblest around. Quite a contrast
Allen, I take your point. Unfortunately even the SAT/ACT are being dumbed down, plus of course they don’t provide a longitudinal record, and NAEP is pretty dumb.
Excellent point on the perspective lacking due to self-congratulatory crap as well as the self-esteem psychobabble. That ties into the whole topic of how the god of marketing has affected the mindset in the U.S. (at least, maybe other places, but I’m not sure). What seems real is more important than what is real, and instant gratification over anything else. Very ineffective across a number of fronts.
or possible SOLUTIONS. SOLUTIONS. edit, z, EDIT.
No Rags, I don’t think you do get my meaning and I’ll take responsibility for that since my observation about the lack of any measures of teaching skill is simply one link in a chain of occurrences/circumstances.
To flog my baseball analogy a bit more, imagine the effect on individual player incentive if only team final placement were important. No statistics wonks toting up hits, runs, bases stolen, strike-outs, etc. Just the team standing once a year.
What’s the incentive to work on your skills if everything you do gets homogenized into the team and spread over a whole year? The incentive to improve skills disappears because, other then the spectacular play or the spectacularly gifted player, the distinction between good and not so good disappears. What’s the point of spending lots of time improving your skills if the before and after difference isn’t measured or in terms of team annual standing, measurable?
There is a point to trying to improve your skills of course but it springs from internal resources. Pride might drive you to improve your skills even if there are no external reasons to do so.
Trouble is, the skills that aren’t being measured are the skills that are least likely to draw what official recognition exists. There’s your explanation for the self-esteem movement, whole language and all the rest of the dreary panoply of edu-horse shit that afflicts the public education system. If you can’t be good then you can be distinct, at the cutting edge, you can toss around impressive jargon, you can assume the moral high ground, land a nice, fat grant. The lack of substantive measures of teaching skill creates an “attainment vacuum” that charlatans rush to fill and professionals in need of some means of distinguishing themselves are eager to lap up.
There are other factors of course. The district system exacerbates the situation. Inter-district comparisons can be ignored to a large extent because of the political independence of districts. Intra-district comparisons don’t have as much value as they might because the identity of the school is diluted due their immersion in the district.
The repercussions don’t stop at the district level though.
Since teaching skill isn’t measured as a function of professional performance, i.e. how good a teacher you are isn’t that important, measuring the indicators of potential teaching skill isn’t that important. There’s no value to the district in hiring graduates from a good ed school versus graduates from a lousy ed school. That doesn’t mean there are no good ed schools but it reduces the value of being a good ed school. Once again, it’s pride that maintains quality, to the extent it’s maintained, since quality isn’t rewarded overtly.