The mess that is the Washingotn D.C. school system

There is no doubt by anyone who knows anything about public education in this country that the Washington D.C. public school system is in complete disarray, and has been for a long time. Now we learn that it is supposedly very common for D.C. staff to cancel meetings with special needs families and students. This has apparently created a major backlog:

"implementation of 584 hearing officer decisions is more than 120 days overdue. The consent decree calls for that backlog to be eliminated by the end of the year, which is unlikely to happen."

I don't know whether to believe the school administration or the teacher unions on this one, but no doubt, this is a injustice to the 11,000 students special needs in the D.C. area. For more information on D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee, The Atlantic has written an excellent feature article on her. In addition to discussing Rhee, it also give a good description of the tension between the teachers and the Rhee, who is trying to reform the D.C. school system. Some might say "reform" is understating it. I don't know how practical some of her demands are, but something has got to change.

For other information on trying to fix D.C. public schools, check out the Washington Post's website on D.C. schools.

One problem with Standardized Testing

There are numerous problems with standardized testing, and I hope to talk more about them in the future. The Hobo Teacher is currently giving his students their tests, and well, he has come across one problem with standardized testing that some may not think about:

"Nothing makes me more proud to be an educator than when I prevent students—from—learning. Wait a second!"

Editing the website

I have started to make some changes to the website. Instead of one list of must-read websites at the side of the page, I have divided the list into two: one for education-related websites (since it is primarily an education blog), one for other websites. It has become painfully clear that I need to add more education websites.

In addition I have been messing around with the blog colors. I really want to keep the website with my two favorite colors: green and blue (colors of the earth). Unfortunately, it doesn't make that much of a difference.

Yikes! It is, um, a work in progress to say the least.

Mr. S

Going back and reading my introductory post, I was reminded that I gave myself the nickname Mr. S, because I wished to remain anonymous. The "S" does stand for what my first name begins with, and I do wish to still remain anonymous. Thus, I will still keep the name Mr. S. But here is how I first described the name:

"There is lots of other information I could share about myself but won't. This is because I posting on this blog anonymously, and need to limit the details of my life to a certain extent. As a future teacher, I do not want any comments I have maid to come back and, well, bite me in the ass (many parents, students, and administrators know how to Google). I want to be as open and honest about my beliefs, and I want the exchange of ideas between me and other readers to be as free as possible. I will give details about my life here and there as I deem appropriate, and I do not rule out the possibility that one day, I may decide to reveal my identity. Until that day, call me Mr. S."

I apologize if that last line came off at all as corny. My bad!

So what the hell have I been up to?

Well, let me begin by first posting this short, autobiography that I made when I first created this blog. You can read about me so I don't have to repeat myself. However, in the long period of time that I have been gone, there has been some changes.

• I no longer work as a pre-school teacher. While I learned a lot from that job, I decided to leave because it was interfering with my studies . . . and my sanity. It was probably the main reason why I originally stopped posting. I would probably take the job again, but I definitely would do some things differently. Not only did I let it take over my life to an extent, but I also had a very rocky relationship with my boss. I enjoyed working with all of the kids (even the ones that were more prone to misbehavior). I am currently working part-time in a major book and music store, a considerably less stressful job while I finish up my studies.
• I am scheduled to start student teaching in January. I do not have a placement yet, but it will be in special education.
• A year ago, I described myself as a "Unitarian Christian". While my religious views tend to shift from one day to the next, I probably now consider myself more of an agnostic, or a deist. It is something I continue to struggle with. God only knows what I will call myself next year (if there is a God, of course).
• A year ago, I described myself as "pretty liberal". Today, I would describe myself as VERY liberal, dare I say, quasi-socialist. There are many influences that probably moved me further left, but the most obvious influence for me is watching the 2003 documentary, The Corporation. For a left-wing diatribe, it is actually pretty balanced.
• Finally, the girlfriend I mentioned is no longer my girlfriend . . . she is now my fiance. We are scheduled to get married late next summer after I finish my Masters (hopefully). I love her more than anything in the world, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with her!

I'm back . . . again.

So it has been almost a year since I have even touched this website. The simple matter was that I was too busy and really thought I would never get a chance to create new posts (I'll explain in my next post). I originally decided I would give up on this whole blog. But then today, I read an article in The Atlantic Monthly by Andrew Sullivan (my favorite political blogger) on blogging. Right then and there, it inspired me to take it up again.

Make no mistake, this is a very impulsive decision of mine. Perhaps this is partially because, as someone who has ADD, impulsiveness is a major characteristic. But as someone who watches the events of the world unfold on a daily basis, I cannot help but feel the need to speak my voice. Self-fulfilling as my motives may seem, I am still genuinely interested in contributing a variety of ideas (not just my own) to the public discourse. Yes, this is an impulsive decision, but as Andrew states in his article, the impulsiveness itself of blogging is part of what makes it so wonderful:

"[Blogging] is the spontaneous expression of instant thought—impermanent beyond even the ephemera of daily journalism. It is accountable in immediate and unavoidable ways to readers and other bloggers, and linked via hypertext to continuously multiplying references and sources. Unlike any single piece of print journalism, its borders are extremely porous and its truth inherently transitory. The consequences of this for the act of writing are still sinking in. "

As it always has, this blog will still focus primarily on education and education-related issues. But it will also focus on politics, current events, philosophy, religion, movies, sports . . . well pretty much anything of interest that comes to me. For what the (un)Reasonable Missourian is about, read this post I first put up when I started this blog. It is a bit lengthy for a blog post, but I still stand by it.

Go Tigers!

As I mentioned once earlier last month, I have been a Missouri Tiger football fan for as long as I can remember. This has been a season like I have never seen, nor like I thought I would ever see in my lifetime. The highlight, of course, was being the number 1 team in the country for one week after beating Kansas and winning the Big 12 North.

However, we did lose in the Big 12 Championship to Oklahoma, and we did get royally screwed by the BCS (hell, we have a whole history of getting screwed in college football). Damn it, we should be in the Orange Bowl, not Kansas. Even though we lost twice, it was to the same team (and an admittedly better team). In addition, we have beaten Texas Tech, Illinois, and, yes Kansas (who is going to the Orange Bowl). As any Mizzou fan will tell you in their most cordial way possible, FUCK THE BCS!

But I am not bitter. This is a season I will always be grateful for, and never forget. It is an honor to be playing Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. This game should be all the more interesting because one of my best friends is a die-hard Arkansas fan. Bring it on Razorbacks! M-I-Z . . . Z-O-U!!!!!