Crazy Liberal Bashers

So yeah, I'm a liberal, I'll say it loud, proud, whatever. I've recently come across a lot of articles, due to my research, lately. They tend to be very... uh how shall I say, right wing nut job. In these articles I have found multiple untruths here are the corrections:

1. Yes, teachers are underpaid, we don't get off 3 months a year, its more like 1 1/2 to 2 with in-service. Only bad teachers only work from 8-3 good teacher spends a minimum of 2-4 hours grading papers, revising lessons, preparing for later in the week, and revising everything. Plus we have to deal with loads of bureaucracy, helicopter and non-existent parents, and NCLB. Trust me, if it's so easy why aren't you doing it.

2. You can care about two causes at a time. I can care about human rights, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and animal rights. I can care about spreading peace and supporting individual troops. I can walk and chew gum at the same time, amazing how the complicated human mind can work huh?

3. Religion and Intellectualism can exist at the same time. I know this is a pretty amazing concept, but I can be a good Catholic and still have an acute intellectual mind. I can believe there is a God, but also think science exists. Powerful stuff there people.

4. Finally its either black or white. Sorry people, it's all shades of grey, always has been and always will be. End of Story. I don't know who started this rumor but its not true, Sorry.

What's going on in our schools today?

I recently discovered the KIPP program through a class called "Health and Learning", and it made me think, is this what students respond from. Now don't get me wrong, I don't know a lot about the KIPP Academy, but from what I saw it's very traditional teaching in the form of drill and kill... A LOT. I'm a hard-core constructivist, I definitely believe in the teachings of Piaget, Vygotsky, and the lot. I've implemented them while student teaching and had great results. However, I think I saw the consistency in both the KIPP academy video and my teaching style and that is expectations. While it may be unrealistic to feel that all students can succeed, a good teacher does not rely on feel. They rely on think, know, and truly believe. I believe the difference is high expectations. I have taught in inner city classrooms, suburban classrooms, and a rural classroom. In all of these, the students who did the best were the ones who had expectations upon them.

I have not had a behavioral problem yet, well one that I wasn't able to take care of and I do believe that's because of expectations. I expect my students to succeed, I don't expect them to screw around, not do the assignment, and not pay attention and I think that is the difference for me. Expectations. If we allow our students a week to turn in a single worksheet that should take twenty minutes, we do not encourage them to take responsibility. When things are due, they are due. Students get F's they earn A's and that's the way it should be, if we do not have high expectations of our students, and just say kids will be kids, we give them a cop out. I've seen a lot of people who rely on cop outs in my life, and very few I know are successful. But those who have put in the hard work... I know very few who aren't successful. It's not about 10 hour school days, 300 days of school a year. It's about creating responsible, participating members of our society. To allow a child to fail is negligent teaching in my opinion, unless you just decided to teach due to the three months "off". I personally know, that I did not give up a degree where I could be earning 150K+ in five years to go back and teach for the benefits, I did it for the kids, end of story.

Cultural Relativism... Drives me bonkers

So today I was reading an article on ABC news and realized one thing.... I hate the idea of cultural relativism. Let me rephrase this, I don't like the idea that everything is OK if it's a societies culture. People pull this stuff all the time and it drives me crazy. Now I'm not saying all forms of cultural relativism are bad, for example If one society chooses to eat bugs or meat because it's all that is provided fine.

On the other hand these hippie, liberal, (Yes I'm a liberal) who feel that it's wrong to impose their will on others,ever, grow a pair. Genocide=wrong, denial of rights=wrong, FGM = wrong, slavery = wrong. It strikes me that the same people who fight the death penalty (I'm one) and voluntary student religious groups (Not so much me, but I understand where people are coming from), are the same people that defend cutting off parts of the female genitalia as Cultural Relativism.... Yeah Sure, and it was a great idea killing six million Jewish people in WWII... Wake up people, cultural relativism is nothing but a term for "I don't have enough time to care about everything" just admit it, stop being a hypocrite and care.

Blog Intro/ Grandma

So this blog is dedicated to things I love and the things I hate (hence the name). Sometimes I will pay homage, sometimes I will complain, argue, and the like. It just depends on the mood. So with that in mind here is my first entry, simply a poem dedicated to my late grandmother.

You can shed tears that she is gone or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she's gone or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back or you can do what she'd want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

This was an anonymous poem written for the Queen Mother in 2002, however I found it very fitting, and as such chose to use it to remember my grandmother.