Leave 'em all behind

One of the best commercials of all time, I first saw it at Hunter when the Physics teacher showed it to me. It's 2:00 long.




There were no camera tricks or computer graphics added, except the room wasn't big enough to fit the whole thing, so they split it into two takes, right where the muffler is rolling on the ground... If you are seriously interested, you can start by visiting the link below:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/hondacog.asp

Of course I'm trusting someone I don't know, but Snopes hasn't let me down before.

So Easter is in the books. That means it's stretch run time for teachers. Time to drill kids into submission, so they can pass a multiple choice test that will show how good of a teacher I am. And if they don't do good, then of course, it's my fault.

I actually think the No Child Left Behind law is alright, except for a few fatal flaws. The biggest problem I see with the law is that all responsibility is put on teachers for a child's learning. In my opinion, at least two other parties are responsible. The parents or guardians of the child, and the child him/herself.

I also have a problem with the culture of treating teachers as if they aren't professionals. Teachers train for thier job longer than just about any other job, and it's irritating when "know-it-alls" come riding in on thier white horse and try to fix what's wrong with teachers. By in large, the system is broken, and teachers try to do the best they can with a broken system.

So, if we have to have a law that holds people accountable, it should hold accountable all responsible parties, not just teachers. Here's what I'd do, of course I'm only a teacher, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

1. Parents don't get to claim a tax deduction for a failing student.
2. Failing students repeat the grade they failed.
3. Teachers continue to be held accountable.


The biggest problem with this scenario is the same problem we have today, and that is how are we going to decide who is 'failing'?

Also, there are several students (namely children of illegal aliens) whose parents don't pay taxes, and would therefore be unaffected by these new regulations. Logically, they shouldn't be allowed to attend school, but education people are generally compassionate, and don't want to keep people from learning. And yes, I meant to say aliens.

Rant over.

We bought Lincoln a little basketball hoop, and he plays with it nonstop. Amazing how he knows what he's supposed to do with the thing.

That will be all, it's time for me to clean the house, Lincoln can sure mess things up quickly.