Gotta have your priorities straight

I have just returned from a "Black Friday" excursion to check WalMart's early specials. Holy cow. There was a line to get into the parking lot. People had made their own parking spaces, though by 11:30 a few legit spots had opened up. Some customers must have left to get to Target by midnight...
Inside, the line for a register was beyond anything I've ever seen in my life. Not only that, but there were lines already for the specials to be released at midnight. Military security needs to study Walmart's methods. They have a quite effective strategy for keeping the goodies secure until zero hour. At each of the secret stations, there were dozens in line, snaking up and down the aisles.
It needs to be said, though some will take offense: All these hundreds (thousands?) of customers had arranged their lives, inconvenienced themselves and others, and sacrificed some beauty sleep. But just try and get most of them to come to a meeting at their child's school. It's like asking for the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. You just gotta have your priorities straight.

Wow, you mean it isn't automatically easy?

Sorry, that's my sarcastic streak expressing itself. A new study out of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington and the Learning and Development Lab at Georgia State University suggests that young children's learning is enhanced by their own struggle with a task, and also by observing an adult struggle with the same task. Sounds like it goes back to problem-solving. Here's a link to a description by the researchers: http://www.educationnation.com/index.cfm?objectid=CA44DA1E-FC09-11E0-B00E000C296BA163&aka=0
I think it's interesting, because the adolescents I teach tend to immediately give up when a task becomes or even seems the least bit difficult. I'll have to share this article with them and see how they respond. Wonder what the researcheers have observed with older children.

double standard?

Nina Bernstein of the NY Times, writes in On Colleges Campuses, Athletes Often Get Off Easy about how colleges protect athetes who committed crimes and often sweep their offenses under the rug.
I think we need to look at where this starts: K-12 sports programs. No, not just high school coaches, but also the middle school coaches who dont hold their players accountable for infractions of rules or common decency. Ii've seen numerous 8th grade athletes get away with misbehavior in class or elswhere on campus, with no reporcussions whatsoever. I would not tolerate the kind of nonsense I've observed, but then, that's probably why I'm not a coach. i'd piss off too many parents.

Must be a full moon

Judging by what I saw today, it has to be close. Jeez, I almost turned into a werewolf myself.
It's been a very interesting week so far of listening to kids make excuses for stupid choices, then parents making excuses for their kids' stupid choices, then explaining how none of that BS is going to help. If you haven't taken care of your responsibility, don't look to me. I'm sorry, but I've got enough of my own. I'm just waiting for some flak to come down about insisting that any missing work has to be made up by staying after school to take care of it. That will be the end of it right there. I'm not even supposed to accept late work, so this is a favor for you. Give me grief about it, and I'll cancel it on the spot.

Was thinking about students' names. It dawned on me that there are quiet a few whose names reflect a certain self-absoprtion on the parent's part. Like the one who named her son after herself. Then there are the moms who pick a baby name that rhymes with their own. Ugh. Worse are those who need to share a name with their child, by adding "La" or "Da/De" on the front to make a 'new' name. Please, just give your child his or her own identity. Maybe that would help the process of self-actualization. You know, growing up.

These are the "wisest" people they could find?

I really must object to this characterization. Consider the speaker quoted first, who has probably done the greatest damage of any individual in public education. Don't forget, that exact same comment was previously published, and discussed (to death) during the summer. Couldn't you at least say something new?
Perhaps, rather than wise, these are actually the people who could be roped into this when others were not available for the 'event'? Sort of like a jury is composed of people who couldn't find a way to avoid the dubious privilege...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57321031/rhee-todays-kids-must-understand-hard-work/

The things that have to be explained...

Oh brother. Please save me from parent conferences where I have to explain that the child's grade is low because he/she won't stop talking long enough to complete the assignment, therefore receiving no credit for the no work. Exactly why does this need ot be explained in the computer age, with grades available in real time, on the internet? Please stop asking me silly questions when the answer is right in front of you. The grade stinks because the work was not done. Period. Get over it and light a fire under the kid's rear.