Archive for January 16th, 2008

Running Records

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 16, 2008 in Running Records. 0 Comments

Caught Being Good

Chet Culver
The Iowa Governor has set a goal of the state adopting a “model core curriculum,” a road map for what students should learn, by 2010.

Joe Manchin
West Virginia’s Governor proposes that students have at least a 2.0 grade point average and good attendance to apply for a drivers license. Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee have similar laws on the books.

John McCoy
The Washington State representative is reintroducing a bill he sponsored last year to require K-12 schools to provide at least 30 minutes of physical activity during the school day, either from recess or PE.

Eduwonkette
The 154th Carnival of Education is up…and it’s….GOOD!

Sarah Prince
Fifth-grader speaks truth to power; asks the Waynesboro (Pennsylvania) Area School Board why she and her fellow students don’t have enough textbooks.

Names on the Board

Pennsylvania State Board of Education
The State Board of Education has abandoned an effort to adopt rules requiring all students to acquire at least basic foreign-language skills before they graduate.

Promoting Academic Success
$28.5 million Washington state program designed to help high-school students pass the WASL shows poor results.

On the Board with Checkmark

PBS
“Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letter $ and the number 9.95 (a month).” PBS is launching a paid online service that lets preschoolers “play and learn with the help of characters such as Curious George and The Berenstain Bears.”

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Homer Don’t Hurt ‘Em

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 16, 2008 in Teaching. 0 Comments

Picking up the thread started by Will Okun’s NY Times essay “None,” reader Deirdre Mundy posts the following “relevant” plot  summary of a “dead white guy’s classic” on joannejacobs.com:

“A boy lives with his single Mom. Where’s his dad? Dead, Prison, Who knows. He left with his buddies years ago and never came back. Son doesn’t even know him. Mom has a string of abusive boyfriends who leach off her and never work, just sit around drinking. So the boy goes off on a quest to find dad, beats up an old guy to get some info…..

“Meanwhile, Dad is wandering around, shacking up with random girls and getting into fights…. but eventually he comes home to find out that sonny boy has grown up and is all set to follow in his Dad’s footsteps…..

“Or we could just call it “The Oddessey.”

“Maybe the teacher’s problem is that he’s too lazy to read classics and FIND the relevance to his students’ experiences. So it’s easier to read the ones that proclaim their relevance on the dust jacket.  The Greeks and Romans had a LOT of testosterone. So did Shakespeare. And Doestoyesky and Tolstoy…..

“Maybe if English Teachers were required to take a great books class?”

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