OUR LANGUAGE IS UNDERGOING A METAMORPHOSIS THAT IS NOT, IN MY OPINION, A POSITIVE CHANGE. Language has always changed - from the king's English version of, "Wither thou goest, Morris?" might now be phrased, "Yo Mo where you headed?" While not terrible, it certainly is a comedown from when the written language flourished and flowered as the main means of communication.
Technology has changed that. Instant messaging, the present coin of the realm, has a sub-culture that advocates speed over accuracy. In fact clever abbreviations and understandable circumventing of grammar rules are most appreciated and emulated. "Skool a bore id rath be @ home w/da box can u mt w/me @ lnch" Also spellcheck has turned us all into astute grammarians with the push of a button. Many do not feel that they have to study the rules of captialization, punctuation, and grammar - why bother?
In a more civilized mode but no less frustrating is the use of nominative and objective case pronouns. "My brother and me went to the mall yesterday afternoon." "That was such a thrill for my boyfriend and I."
Bill Cosby has risen to the fore lately emphasizing the need for correct English rather than the street corner lingo favored by city-dwelling blacks and wanna-be's.
The large wave of immigration may also have contributed to the quick change with the combination of native languages and English with noted shortcuts of the loss of conjunction use and the use of subject and verb agreement.
While change in language is inevitable, even good, the assault under which it is now struggling is way too much and way too fast.
Whadda ya tink?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
TEACHER PAY DIFFERENTIALS NECESSARY
It is such an integral part of the educational process in this country. All teachers are paid the same based on their degree status and years of service - regardless of the importance of their subject and/or their effectiveness in the classroom.
Teachers' unions invariably take the position that all teachers need raises and that all subjects are important. True enough. The way this country treats teachers is just awful. They receive little or no community respect, are the subjects of parental scorn, and are resented because of their burden on the local tax rate. Where do all these good people come from? Why do they enter education? Do we deserve them? All interesting points for discussion in another blog.
Deserving as teachers are, they are not all equal. Good teachers should make far more than average or poor teachers. Math teachers should earn more than English teachers; science teachers should be paid more than history teachers; there are other arguments for other disciplines as well. How about world languages, special education?
Based upon societal needs, some areas are just more valuable than others. Plain and simple. Math and science seem to make the point well. Our country needs more and better educated teachers in these fields as the demand for knowledge in these fields seems to increase exponentially every few years. Without better student education in these fields, we will inevitably fall behind as world leaders.
Granted, all good teachers deserve pay raises, but those teaching in the more critical fields also need to have a differented pay scale to benefit their entering into the educational profession. Why would a $100,000 dollar a year private sector engineer leave such a job to teach for $40,000 in the public sector? Obviously, that doesn't happen, and the best prepared professionals by-pass education at the expense of all of us.
As was stated in the novel ANIMAL FARM, "All pigs are equal; but some pigs are more equal than others."
Differentiated pay scales are a necessity. Their time has come. Put aside the politics of the educational unions. Put the hard-earned tax monies where they will make the greatest impact on teaching and students' education.
Teachers' unions invariably take the position that all teachers need raises and that all subjects are important. True enough. The way this country treats teachers is just awful. They receive little or no community respect, are the subjects of parental scorn, and are resented because of their burden on the local tax rate. Where do all these good people come from? Why do they enter education? Do we deserve them? All interesting points for discussion in another blog.
Deserving as teachers are, they are not all equal. Good teachers should make far more than average or poor teachers. Math teachers should earn more than English teachers; science teachers should be paid more than history teachers; there are other arguments for other disciplines as well. How about world languages, special education?
Based upon societal needs, some areas are just more valuable than others. Plain and simple. Math and science seem to make the point well. Our country needs more and better educated teachers in these fields as the demand for knowledge in these fields seems to increase exponentially every few years. Without better student education in these fields, we will inevitably fall behind as world leaders.
Granted, all good teachers deserve pay raises, but those teaching in the more critical fields also need to have a differented pay scale to benefit their entering into the educational profession. Why would a $100,000 dollar a year private sector engineer leave such a job to teach for $40,000 in the public sector? Obviously, that doesn't happen, and the best prepared professionals by-pass education at the expense of all of us.
As was stated in the novel ANIMAL FARM, "All pigs are equal; but some pigs are more equal than others."
Differentiated pay scales are a necessity. Their time has come. Put aside the politics of the educational unions. Put the hard-earned tax monies where they will make the greatest impact on teaching and students' education.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
A recent AP article featured a story about an English teacher who was placed on paid leave and who faces possible criminal charges after some parents complained to police that a 9th grade class reading list contained Cormac McCarthy's CHILD OF GOD, a novel about a murder who is also a necrophiliac in relation to his victims.
Hundreds of parents attended a school committee meeting complaining of the teacher's assignment, evidently ignoring the fact that the reading list was compiled by all of the school's English teachers for a pre-Advanced Placement class.
I have several problems with this whole episode.
1. Why would parents complain to the police? Why would they not go to the English department chair and then, if necessary, to the principal, the superintendent, the school committee? Why would they not see it as a school issue rather than a criminal issue?
2. Why would the English department assign such a book to a reading list, especially a reading list for underclassmen. Including the 1974 novel about a man who is falsely accused of rape, begins killing people, and then lives with his victim's decaying bodies in a cave demonstrates a lack of good judgement by the department.
3. Why would the principal's approval of the reading list not be mandatory? S/he is responsible for the school and for all its machinations? By-passing the principal is highly questionable.
4. The entire process of creating, publishing, and implementing a student reading list is a complicated social and intellectual process that should involve students, teachers, parents, and administration. If such a process were in place, I doubt that this issue would have arisen, and a third-year teacher would not have become a target for angry parents and a scape goat for administrators and politicians.
Hundreds of parents attended a school committee meeting complaining of the teacher's assignment, evidently ignoring the fact that the reading list was compiled by all of the school's English teachers for a pre-Advanced Placement class.
I have several problems with this whole episode.
1. Why would parents complain to the police? Why would they not go to the English department chair and then, if necessary, to the principal, the superintendent, the school committee? Why would they not see it as a school issue rather than a criminal issue?
2. Why would the English department assign such a book to a reading list, especially a reading list for underclassmen. Including the 1974 novel about a man who is falsely accused of rape, begins killing people, and then lives with his victim's decaying bodies in a cave demonstrates a lack of good judgement by the department.
3. Why would the principal's approval of the reading list not be mandatory? S/he is responsible for the school and for all its machinations? By-passing the principal is highly questionable.
4. The entire process of creating, publishing, and implementing a student reading list is a complicated social and intellectual process that should involve students, teachers, parents, and administration. If such a process were in place, I doubt that this issue would have arisen, and a third-year teacher would not have become a target for angry parents and a scape goat for administrators and politicians.
How About Those Sox? Red That Is.
Though I'm bleary eyed from watching the first two games of the 2007 version of the World Series, I'm still excited about the Red Sox probably winning their second W.S. in four years. Being a life-long Fenway fan, I'm not used to this high living. I'm used to angst caused by falling short, by broken promises, and by under performance. This team is gutsy, determined, smart, and effective. I do believe that they're going to deliver.
Having to cut this short, do you realize that there are only seven members of this year's team that were in the 2004 World Series? Can you name them? I'll supply the answers next blog.
John Thomas
Having to cut this short, do you realize that there are only seven members of this year's team that were in the 2004 World Series? Can you name them? I'll supply the answers next blog.
John Thomas
Friday, October 19, 2007
From Yankee Pride to Yankee Shame
The Yankees obviously felt that Joe Torre needed them more than they needed Joe Torre. Good for him for walking on the insulting deal that they offered him. While I would love to be insulted with a five million dollar payday, the point in the nether world of baseball salaries is that a paycut is never warranted.
It certainly was not warranted in Joe Torre's case. The Yanks started the year in a funk and ended it in a blaze before predictably losing the Cleveland series. Not because Joe wasn't a first-tier manager but because the Yanks upstairs-brain-trust didn't supply him with enough pitching in the off-season. A play-off team with good pitching that can somewhat cap the prodigious Yankee offense will win a post-season series with them every time.
I'm a Red Sox fan, but I take no satisfaction in seeing the Yanks descend into turmoil. Posada, Rivera, Rodriguez are each free agents and are quite apt to sign elsewhere. They have been a great organization with a great history that formulated the term Yankee Pride. I think the way they treated Joe Torre is a Yankee shame.
It certainly was not warranted in Joe Torre's case. The Yanks started the year in a funk and ended it in a blaze before predictably losing the Cleveland series. Not because Joe wasn't a first-tier manager but because the Yanks upstairs-brain-trust didn't supply him with enough pitching in the off-season. A play-off team with good pitching that can somewhat cap the prodigious Yankee offense will win a post-season series with them every time.
I'm a Red Sox fan, but I take no satisfaction in seeing the Yanks descend into turmoil. Posada, Rivera, Rodriguez are each free agents and are quite apt to sign elsewhere. They have been a great organization with a great history that formulated the term Yankee Pride. I think the way they treated Joe Torre is a Yankee shame.
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