h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Carmel (not actually here, either)

Um, I do hate to be a bother, really I do, and I don't know the proper etiquette for refering to topics from way, way back in the backlog, but I have a good "banned books" story I want to share. If you don't want to go back to that topic just skip this post, please and thank you.

A Born-Again Christian gentleman entered the bookstore where Kelly (Mrs. Mac) works and since it was slow began to chat with the staff. This chat degenerated into a rant against what the man felt was a terribly sinful series of books. The Chronicles of Narnia.
It remains unclear what the man's problem with C.S. Lewis was, dear me he was ranting after all, but it seems his main objection was that the books include talking animals. Only witches and sorcerors talk to animals.
Hmph! I don't have to tell you what I think of that notion.

Someone should have pointed out to that poor deluded man that the *entire* series is a Christian allegory. Aslan the Lion turns out to be Christ, for crying out loud!

[note here]

Happy belated birthday to Witty and Marv!

*wondering what Lil's "unsuitable" link was*

{[caer csd] Oh no we've missed birthdays?

Many Happy Belated Returns for your Birthdays, Witty and Marv

[Amy] - what was the unsuitable link?

Well I never! I woke up just before one o'clock this morning screaming, convinced that something quite large had jumped onto my bed. It took me quite a while to settle after that. Now I discover that there was an earthquake at that exact time . http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2275158.stm

That's how I wake up every morning - not an earthquake, just something large jumping into my bed.

I'm also wondering what the [Unsuitable link] was. For shame, Lil! (I'm sure my imagination is far worse than the actual link).

It's hard to predict how removing tenure would change teachers' motivations. Certainly simply abolishing the tenure system would not cure the public education system's problems. You also need to devise a new system of rewards, and most importantly, enforce it. I think many of the system's ills result from weak administration, often running scared from teachers unions or loud parents threatening to sue over non-issues.

And then there are the reforms themselves, some of which have been disastrous.

And happy birthdays to Marv and Witty

Drat, dying to get into the education debate, but no time at present... Maybe later...

Marv had a brilliant party for his birthday - as I'm sure he'll tell you when he returns later today. Make sure that he doesn't get away without telling the tale of his present from Z and I.

Happy b-day to WM as well.

*sips and tries to decide if she really wants to go to work today or not...*

¶[LIL]
Got the link from the Albuquerque Sunday paper who are evidently less selective than the beeb. Link was from eBay, search on "silo"

also dying to enter education debate... re overpaid admin. In Florida, school secretaries and admin assistants still earn about 8-11K. per annum. Ask any teacher how much time they would have to teach if not for support in requisitions and filing county state and federal reports.

[{Courtesy}]

Happy b-lated b-days Marv & Witty.

Banned Books Week - Sept. 21-28

True story. Some years ago a fundamentalist preacher in Springfield, Mo decided that he and his flock would protest all of the filth and perversion in our society by collecting copies of "objectionable" books, building a giant pile on the parking lot of his church and setting fire to it. These objectionable works included books about gays and lesbians, magic, wicca, etc. Well, there was a counter demonstration attended by a friend of mine who is openly Pagan and does the whole Pagan Pride bit. (And from whom I heard the story.) The preacher went into a lengthy prayer calling upon the Lord to light his bonfire. Nothing happened, so they doused it with gasoline and set fire to it. Just as it started to burn a terrific, unexpected thunderstorm came up and put out the fire. A reporter from a local tv station asked the preacher if he thought it was possible that God had sent the rain to give him a message of tolerance. Apparently the reply was that the storm was sent by the devil.

While we're talking about education, I'm curious what experiences any of you have had with the Accelerated Reading program. Here, the kids like it until they reach about third grade. Then it becomes less enjoyable until they start actually disliking the program. They come in here for our summer reading program and are astonished that we'll let them read anything they want. So they pick books they've wanted to read but "couldn't" because they weren't on the AR list - or didn't have enough points, or whatever. The problem is that the majority of kids don't attend summer reading. They're stuck with what the school tells them to read. If the intent is to turn them into lifelong readers, it's backfiring. It's making reading a terrible chore to lots of kids rather than a pleasure.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone.

I'm not familiar with Accelerated Reading, Hypatia. My home district currently has about 25-30% of children receiving resource and basic skills services. The kids at the other end of the spectrum get very little G&T exposure. After being "identified" at the end of third grade, my daughter received 1 hour a week of G&T, which really didn't amount to much. Class size was a big issue, too, with 27 kids in the class, 7 of them classified as special ed. New Jersey has tons of legislation that mandates Individual Education Plans for classified kids. Meanwhile, school districts are required to have gifted programs, but the wording of the law is so vague that there are no specific standards that must be met.

I'm not willing to home school, so I moved her into a public school in a neighboring town that she now attends as a tuition student. She has 9 kids in her fifth grade class. The big advantage is that they each receive individual attention and can move at their own pace as their abilities allow.

Thanks for the bday wishes all. Had a great party at my club. Piccies shall be put up as soon as I find web space to do so.

i think we should get them onto war and peace before age 5.

Belated birthday wishes to all.

My parents actually fought the school district over the AR list. They, and other parents (lots of uni profs!) insisted just what you said, that if kids can't chose what they read, then they find reading a task, not something enjoyable. My sister is a product of the first go-round of that. If you walk into my house, my bookshelves are overflowing. Hers, you're lucky to find a magazine. She HATES to read, and really doesn't. They abolished it after a couple of years, and started calling the list a "suggested" reading guide. It worked much better that way. I've seen the list for Irvine, and I've read most of the books on it, but there's a few that wouldn't interest me at all.

Perhaps this, too, shows the limitations of public education. There are some fantastic books that aren't on the list, and some really bad ones that are. If this is at all indicative of what most teachers have read, it's pretty pathetic.

Sol, you *are* a teacher, right? I would love to have your input on this.

Today is financial aid check day!!! Yea, I am no longer broke (well, until tonight, anyway!)

First, my apologies for failing to send birthday wishes. And this weekend I sent a message to Amy that should have gone to sea.

My only experience of AR has been as a librarian. But I've talked to so many people who hate it - and precious few who like it. I don't understand why our schools are so commited to this program when it clearly isn't working. I wish they would do away with it, but they're investing more and more into it each year. Now they have teachers writing their own tests.

Hypatia, I think the problem is the whole "mass production" aspect of public schools. There are so many students, they have to find "objective" ways of quantifying learning. What's sad, really, is that learning isn't just what you can prove on a test. It's hard to test kids for things like social skills, empathy, compassion, common sense....

I mean, how many people do you know who are only booksmart, and have not one iota of common sense? I know quite a few. They can take tests and pass them with flying colors, but they can't pay their rent, do their laundry, or cook for themselves.

The public education system is sadly lacking in teaching skills that will last a whole lifetime. I've never really understood why kids have to know trigonometry. Unless you're going into engineering, etc, will you really need to use a cosign? No, I don't think so. Yet it's required. I personally don't need much math beyond balancing my checkbook and fractions, for recipes.

Ralph's pics, Marv? Or Susan's? Or both? Eek! Either way, I fear that I will be included.



I, personally, think that we will never be able to "fix" the public education process. I also think that most kids need the social interaction that public school provides. The answer, in my opinion, is for parents to get more involved with their children. If the child is interested in math, provide them with books and theories to keep that interest. Likewise with literature, science, anything really..

The only problem is actually getting the vast majority of 'rents to pay enough attention to their children to know what they are interested and adept in...