It was Retirement Tuesday again. That is one reason I haven’t posted in a few days. This is a bi-weekly event that takes place during the school year. As far as I know it may effect only me. It is a serious problem and I see no cure on the horizon.
What causes this? The public schools. On Retirement Tuesdays I am in despair over the future of public education. I am ready to retire, quit, give up. It isn’t the kids. I am also used to the broken furniture. I know how to make the pencil sharper work. Parents have either done their damage or continue to build their children. My health is fine.
The problem is that I have been sitting at the feet of school administrators. On our district, every two weeks all the teachers are required to stay after school for about two hours after the students have left and listen to the latest wisdom from on high. It is usually some combination of The King’s New Clothes and Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.
This week after being reminded that teachers are not even allowed to carry a cell phone without permission from their supervisor, being told that the definition of bullying as defined by our district includes any “perceived” feeling of emotional stress caused by someone else and being given forms to fill out setting meaningless goals for the year we had a resurrection of IB.
IB is the International Baccalaureate Programe. We got into it years ago when our principle found out he could get a million dollar federal grant to start the program. When the money ran out and the principle had a nice addition to his resume, he moved on. It took several years for the program to die. Bells and whistles are hard to get rid of.
Now they want to bring it back. Educators never seem to learn from the past. If you bring up something that used to work in educating children they claim this is a new day needing new methods and we can’t turn the clock back. If it is one of their social engineering programs with federal grants attached they want to keep turning the clock back and trying the same things that did not work that last five times they have been tried.
Maybe more money will help.
I doubt it. If they can’t read, write, add and subtract I doubt if they will ever be able to move on to higher thinking skills. The educators certainly haven’t.
homo unius libri
I don't care what the organization is, those least qualitied always want to lead.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. And too often we let them.
DeleteGrace and peace.
I know your pain. Lay out a retirement budget with contingency plans; check it, and then check it again and again and again; draw a line in the sand with a date, and then clock out according to your plan.
ReplyDeleteLaying out the plan is liberating; it is a sanity saver. It puts you in control.
Best of luck to you.
The big unknown is health care and that is not for me but my wife. I am healthy enough and old enough to take my chances with Medicare she is neither.
DeleteOf course after a day or two of interacting with the kids I am a bit calmer, too.
Grace and peace.