Every few years, I would get an exchange student. One year, it was a German girl. She was friendly, easy-going and got along well with everyone. It was the last day before Christmas Break, so just before the bell, I made my standard pre-break salutation.
Top students can benefit greatly by being offered the subject early. But many districts offer few Black and Latino eighth graders a chance to study it.
This is why Progressives should never be put in charge of anything, ever. It doesn’t matter how well they speak, how nice they look or what degrees they have, they can only destroy. The issue is whether or not advanced students should have the option of taking Algebra in eight grade. Most students take it in ninth.
Do bias and inequality keep Black and Latino children off the fast track? Should middle schools eliminate algebra to level the playing field? What if standout pupils lose the chance to challenge themselves?
This article in the WSJ pisses me off because the only reason public schools function at all is the integrity of teachers. Normandy and North Royalton had a few teachers who were layabouts or reprobates, but the vast majority thought that their subject was important and intended to hold their students accountable.
Teachers’ grading practices have changed and students’ grades have drifted up in recent years, a pandemic-era legacy that is being met with mixed reaction from educators across the country.
Grade inflation has been an issue for decades. Parents, students and administrators are generally in favor of grade inflation, with teachers trying to hold the line on accountability. A few teachers fold under the pressure.
WSJ: Campus Protestors Unmasked
WSJ: Campus Protestors Unmasked
In a letter to university presidents last week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost reminded them that the state has a law against those who use masks to disguise their identity.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama, NBA icon Lebron James and Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps were some of the blockbuster names recommended by students, staff and faculty for the Spring 2024 Ohio State commencement.
Those three guys have the national prominence and stature appropriate for a commencement speaker at the third largest university in the country. For the pedantic, I mean by student enrollment at a single campus.
The last Spring commencement speaker to be recommended by the advisory committee and be chosen in the same year was Apple CEO Tim Cook, who delivered the speech virtually in 2020.
The last university president was incompetent and had an agenda, so chose speakers who weren’t suggested by the advisory committee. All the speakers recommended by the advisory committee aren’t winners, but it’s a plausible list. I don’t know what Morgan Freeman would have to say, but it would sound terrific.
A friend’s daughter graduated from OSU last weekend, so we made it a camping trip to Alum Creek State Park. I didn’t attend commencement, but the graduate came out to the campground afterward.
I graduated from OSU a long time ago, and know it’s a big and tedious affair. It usually isn’t so bizarre. While the graduates were processing in, someone fell from the stadium and died. Some of the graduates saw it happen. That doesn’t usually happen.
Ohio State is a big and well-regarded university. Commencement speakers are occasionally important people, but they are always competent and boring. Not this year. When the graduate told me there were two sing-alongs, that clinched it.
The commencement speaker for Ohio State University’s graduation this past weekend admitted to being high on psychedelic drugs, including ayahuasca. It’s why his speech went quickly off the rails.
I asked the graduate if OSU’s president was a diversity hire. Clearly the speaker was a bad choice and the speech hadn’t been vetted. The graduate said, “No, the last president was, but this one is pretty good.”
Yesterday, OSU President Carter said that he had nothing to do with selecting Pan as the speaker and that the process was “underway before he became President.”
“I did not review his speech. I did not know what he really was going to speak about, and again, it wouldn’t matter because once he gets the microphone, he’s got the microphone. It was certainly an interesting speech. I would say very nontraditional. There were some that liked it and a lot that didn’t,” Carter added.
I like how OSU’s president doesn’t try to defend the speech and wants to be clear that he had nothing to do with it. He sounds competent.
WaPo: Many protesters are outsiders
WaPo: Many protesters are outsiders
More than a quarter of protesters arrested Tuesday at Columbia University and 60 percent of those arrested at the City College of New York had no connections to the institutions, according to data from the New York Police Department.
It’s time to take these provocateurs seriously. When a DA wants to, an avalanche of charges can be dropped on a defendant. Outside agents should be treated as a serious threat. They should be kept in jail as long as is legally possible to keep them from fomenting chaos elsewhere. Intelligence agencies should be investigating their background. Foreigners can be expelled, and student visas revoked.
The useful idiots from the student body should face university disciplinary hearings along with more modest charges. Academic freedom doesn’t shield faculty from punishment for criminal activity. They should be dismissed from the university.
Our government representatives should be monitoring the response by university and local officials. If these disruptions aren’t seriously addressed, those officials should face consequences.
My old classroom at North Royalton was on the second floor. The windows opened on to the roof of the first floor. Prior to my employment, a physics student climbed out the window, on to the roof. The teacher, Miss Jen, tried to coax the student back in. She begged, promised, compromised and negotiated. The student screwed around on the roof until the period was almost over, then came in.
There are a few ways to handle a situation like this, but the main dysfunction is that the student thought climbing out the window was an action to consider.
Boston Herald: Pro-Palestinian Protestors
So we are back to this. City and university administration doing as little as possible to maintain order.
These Emerson students should be back on campus, trying to figure out their sexuality. That’s become too political, so they dress in their best grunge outfits and protest for something they don’t understand.
Emerson’s new president, Jay Bernhardt, wrote yesterday that the college supports “our community’s right to express their views through protest. However, they must do so in a manner consistent with the laws of the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
At least administrators and city officials are saying the right things, but they won’t follow through.
A court official released the students on a “promise to return” on their scheduled dates.
Really? A better response would be to charge them with three or four misdemeanors and set bail at a couple of thousand dollars. Tuition at Emerson is $54k. They can afford it.
An Instagram post just before the arrests show a man with a bullhorn instructing the students on how to “form ranks 4 lines thick” and “resist police,” the post states.
It would also be a good idea to find out who that man is, who trained him and who is funding this disruption. Where did the tents come from? None of those chubby rascals look like they spend many weekends hiking around Acadia National Park.
Another solution would be to leave the police out of it and let the townies clear out the malcontents
AP: Teacher sues district for neglecting obvious warnings.
The article describes a principal ignoring numerous credible warnings about a student having a gun. A teacher was subsequently shoot at school.
Nothing about the article is surprising to a teacher. The dereliction of duty by the principal is shocking, but entirely routine. It is consistent with my experience at North Royalton High School.
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