Credit Recovery

Lacking Credits, Some Students Learn a Shortcut

SO there was this piece in the NY Times about “credit recovery.” Basically what it entails is: our students who screwed up get to make up a credit by attending THREE, 3-hour sessions over spring break. They have to do a series of essays and whatnot, but in terms of “seat time” they will be in school for only 9 hours over spring break.

I had to hand out these sheets to all of the failures in my class. It galled me that I was essentially handing out what could amount to a free pass to these children. I seethed more and more with each paper I handed out, I was fuming. Especially when one particularly annoying child yelped in glee at being able to make up a credit in 3 days.

Then this article came out. It seemed like the NY Times was just reading my mind.
I forwarded it to several teachers and I actually saw a print out of it in the office. It has obviously angered more than just me. One of the teachers I talked to was also angered, but she confided in me that she was working that 9 hours… so she didn’t know what to feel.

My boss explained that he doubted the bulk of these kids would actually do what they need to. If they are going to screw up that much, he said, they’d screw this up as well.

The other aspect is, the school has to show they did all they could to provide alternatives for said screw-ups. If they (we) fail these kids and don’t do “everything within our power” to get them to make up work, then in a bizarre way, we are liable. I know people who teach seniors this year, and the administration is ON THEM about making sure these parents know these kids are failing and not going to graduate. Its bizarre, these children have no responsibilities.

One answer to this is the problem of “millennials.” 60 Minutes ran a piece on them, and my goodness… I was floored.

The "Millennials" Are Coming
Morley Safer On The New Generation Of American Workers

“They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds. And if you persist in the belief you can, take your job and shove it.”

Now I’m not saying ALL millennials are like this, but every child I work with was born after 1990… and it seems like the majority of these kids who give me the hardest time do so with the attitude that they are the center of the universe. When they want to talk, they don't care what or who they disrupt. Their "self-centeredness" is beyond measure. And I don't want to assign any kind of sweeping judgment on every millennial, but I am sure we all know people who are just like this.

The Rubber Room

So there’s this documentary being produced about the rubber room. the rubber room isn't really a rubber room..... its more like a conference room... but it’s the place where teachers go when they are accused of any kind of impropriety. so in this room these teachers sit for months and sometimes years and do NOTHING. they bring books, laptops and whatever to occupy their time. but they sit their... collecting their paycheck.

The Rubber Room documentary

Now I’m not quite sure how i feel about all that, because on the one hand, you can't hurl an accusation at a professional and take away their livelihood... but at the same time its such a waste and not even money. (actually, the amount is relatively little compared to the total budget of NYC schools... but as Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner quote Peter Sandman in their book Freakonomics, it is the 'outrage factor.' He says, “Risks that you control are much less a source of outrage than risks that are out of your control.” The rubber room and its “waste” of $25 million per year has people outraged because it is DEFINITELY out of their control and it seems like its so much, when in essence its less than 1% of the total budget - actually it is .25% - ONE QUARTER of a percent of the annual operating budget.

Oh, and might one of those teachers interviewed be one of my co-workers. Yes indeedy.

And the krumping kid in the beginning of the trailer... a former student.