Thursday, August 28, 2008
Update: Teacher Witch Hunt
A new school year! The fad this year is same sex classes! The latest gurus of education are telling us brain research is on the same page.
Kids learn better in elementary school if learning is geared toward how males and females learn. Differently.
I'm excited. I teach to the energy of 18 seven year old boys.
I bought a pogo stick for my classroom.
Do you think it will make a difference? :)
An observation:
A solemn one, actually-
During our three day orientation a discussion about why so few men in elementary schools ensued-
men stated they don't teach young children anymore because they are automatically considered pedephiles by many.
That is too dangerous.
They also don't like teaching middle or high school girls. Too risky,
The men at my school are more comfortable teaching boys classes-in the older grades.
They say there aren't too many teaching jobs for men where they feel safe anymore.
Art, P.E., music, library or special education. Coaching.
Do you think the media has made a difference in how parents think?
When will we stop sensationalizing the abnormal when overwhelmingly the norms point to dedicated teachers operating in your classrooms?
McKenzie Phillip's -Everyone's Public addiction
McKenzie Phillips. Addict.Watching public persona's struggle with addiction-falling, without the grace of privacy is so painful.
Having experience with addiction not related to drugs but to gambling, I understand the components of addiction and the struggles and cycles.
Avoidance-not of the addiction but of painful realities of our weaknesses has to be the most destructive aspect.
Sometimes accidental death is preferable than the shame and remorse one feels.
I say accidental because most addicts are already dead emotionally. We are not suicidal just feeling hopeless.
All the step and inpatient programs in the world can't pull an addict from the self delusional logic inherent in addiction.
Even the moments of clarity and spans of clarity can't take away those little voices in your head that infuse the insanity of addiction.
I can't imagine how public humiliation would contribute to the well being of anyone.
Of course, it can be considered an intervention-a wake-up call.
For those of you who have never experienced an addiction, try this on for size:
Take all the secrets-and secret thoughts you would never share with anyone-(try being honest about this-don't tell me you tell everyone or someone-everything..please) take all that shame based stuff inside your heart and imagine it printed in the local paper and well as on the 6pm news for a week. Enough so the world knows your "otherness" instead of your "togetherness"
Imagine-really imagine how that feels inside.
An addict lives with that daily. It just doesn't disappear. Recovery is a way of reminding an addict that otherness can be lived with and controlled.
But no addict, deep down, inside, believes that otherness hides. It what makes an addict so vulnerable.
Recovery programs and meetings are a way connecting with others "otherness" to feel sameness.
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