Archive for 2022

I’m Old Enough to Remember when the Irish Weren’t in Favor of Authorities Locking UP Irishmen Over Religion

Posted: September 6, 2022 by datechguy in culture

I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history

Cardinal Francis George 1937-2015

If you wanted to know what a Post Christian Society looks like, here you go:

I love my school but I am here today because I would not call a boy a girl’: Teacher who refused to use student’s gender-neutral pronouns condemns ‘insanity’ as he is JAILED in Ireland

Now in fairness he is jailed for defying his suspension for refusing to use said pronouns but it amounts to the same thing.

He isn’t going to back down either

Referring to his suspension, Mr Burke said: ‘It is extraordinary and reprehensible that someone’s religious beliefs on this matter could ever be taken as grounds for an allegation of misconduct.

‘My religious beliefs are not misconduct. They are not gross misconduct. They never will be. They are dear to me. I will never deny them and never betray them, and I will never bow to an order that would require me to do so. It is just not possible for me to do that.’

That this is happening in Ireland which was once the most Catholic Country in Christendom tells me that after many centuries not only are the Snakes back in Erie but they’ve taken root.

Education during Covid: A failing grade

Posted: September 6, 2022 by chrisharper in education
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By Christopher Harper

The catastrophe of closing schools during Covid became even more apparent as data provided information about the impact of those decisions.

The average scores for 9-year-olds declined the most on record in math (seven points) and in reading since 1990 (five points, according to the National Center for Educational Progress. See https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/

The 2020 tests were administered shortly before pandemic lockdowns and school closures, so this year’s results show how students have weathered those two years.

NAEP, a congressionally mandated program overseen by the U.S. Department of Education, administered the assessments from January to March 2020 and 2022, respectively. The group tested about 7,400 9-year-old students from 410 schools in 2022, and 92% of the schools assessed this year were also tested in 2020. 

Results were even worse for lower-income and minority students. Math scores fell by 13 points for black students and eight points for Hispanics compared to five points for whites. Reading scores for low-income students fell twice as much as for others.

Simply put, school closures cost American kids a lot, and it is unlikely that the next few years will close the gap significantly.

Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the U.S. Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics, expressed concerns about the findings in a statement announcing the results.

“There’s been much speculation about how shuttered schools and interrupted learning may have affected students’ opportunities to learn,” Carr wrote. 

“Our own data reveal the pandemic’s toll on education in other ways, including increases in students seeking mental health services, absenteeism, school violence and disruption, cyberbullying, and nationwide teacher and staff shortages.”

While the Biden administration praised its efforts to reopen schools and toss money at the problem, it’s worth noting that states that voted for Donald Trump did much better in reopening schools. 

Schools in Trump states reopened 75% of the time, while those that voted for Biden reopened 37% during the 2020-2021 academic year, according to the education nonprofit The 74. 

Also, Democrats widely condemned Trump and Republican governors like Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., for aggressively pushing school reopenings in the fall of 2020. 

“Floridians deserve science-based action from Gov. Ron DeSantis,” Biden said prior to the 2020 election. “While other large states continue to take strong, urgent, and sweeping action to stop the spread of COVID-19, Florida has not.”

The recent results do not include a breakdown by state, but it will be interesting to see how much better Florida did than the national results.

American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten, who pushed shutdowns, tried to forget this ever happened with her statement on Twitter: “Thankfully after two years of disruption from a pandemic that killed more than 1 mil Americans, schools are already working on helping kids recover and thrive. This is a year to accelerate learning by rebuilding relationships, focusing on the basics.” 

She and her union had to back down from extending closures even more after parents went ballistic in many locales. See https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-amid-growing-parent-backlash-teachers-unions-keep-trying-to-rewrite-school-reopening-history/

Just for the record, I taught online classes for nearly two decades. The problem wasn’t online vs. the classroom. The problem was that most of my colleagues had no training and no understanding of how to teach online. If teachers are properly prepared to teach online, surveys show that students do slightly better online than in the classroom.

Nevertheless, as this school year begins, it’s readily apparent that things won’t return to normal any time soon. Students must make up two years of declining knowledge over the next eight years through 12th grade. That’s going to be tough!

A Reason For Hope on Labor Day

Posted: September 5, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Today my sons took my wife and I out for supper at a local steak house chain.

There was a young lady who was our server, she was attentive and efficient making sure we had all we wanted and me being me I opened up a conversation.

It turns out she lives an hour away (the gas price must be rather high) in a rural area. Despite this and the price of gas she was rather cheerful.

During our spaced talks it came out Tuesday is her day off meaning she works six days a week I commented on the long drive and she said it was very peaceful and quiet which is handy because it’s not quiet at home with three kids.

Here is the kicker. The kids aren’t hers, they are her siblings, she has been taking care of them.

So consider this. Here is a young lady, working six days a week with an hour drive each way to work and three kids to raise that aren’t her own.

Yet she talks about all the good things there are in her life and takes joy in simple pleasures.

I don’t know what her politics or her religion are, I don’t care but as long as there are young people like this there is hope for the country and its future.

Report from Louisiana: Teacher Shortage

Posted: September 5, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Besides the LSU one-point loss to Florida State last night, the other big headline in the papers this morning is the national teacher shortage.

At this point, when education officials and politicians lament about teacher shortages I just shake my head and move on. I might roll my eyes, too. I mean, why is anybody surprised that there is a teacher shortage?

I’ve beat this drum in this space before: I retired at 25-years from my teaching position. I could not do thirty years. I wanted to because I loved my students and I loved teaching. But when Louisiana public education officials pushed out the canned curriculum with script, pre-made, dull PowerPoint slides with scripted questions, which we were expected to “read with fidelity,” I was done.

Not to mention that the pay is terrible. The voters refused multiple attempts at a pay raise because we “knew the pay when we went into teaching,” and for multiple other reasons like inflated bureaucracy at the school board office. Top heavy administration. Created jobs for nepotism reasons.

No, instead of being paid like other professionals, we are given free donuts and soft drink coupons on teacher appreciation week. The local Sonic might donate some breakfast burritos for workshop day. That should do it.

Teachers are leaving not just because of low pay. They are leaving because they aren’t really allowed to teach.

They are leaving because their planning period has never been actually for lesson planning. (You don’t need to plan for lessons that are already prepared for you and your script written). No, planning periods are for meetings, “professional development,” and for covering other classes.

Teachers are leaving because classroom management is more challenging these days than ever before. Cell phones and air pods have changed the face of classroom management. 

Teachers are leaving because few people actually respect a teacher; they are thankful for you, sometimes. But they don’t really respect you.

Teachers are leaving because they have to create Amazon Wish Lists for basic classroom materials like paper, pencils, and markers. If you want a stapler on your desk, buy it yourself. If you need dry erase markers for your board, that’s on you, too.

Teachers are leaving because along with teaching you are also expected to support kids by being a class sponsor or a yearbook sponsor or a cheer sponsor or a club sponsor….all on your own time, after school hours, without extra pay. You are expected to do these things to prove that you love the kids and your school. I did them, and I loved my kids whether or not I was yearbook sponsor. But sometimes I was at school until midnight working on the yearbook. Without extra pay.

Teachers are leaving because the government has tied the hands of administrators is dealing out discipline. When a throw-down-girl-fight breaks out in your classroom over something that happened earlier in the day at lunch, and teenage girls are pulling hair and banging heads against the floor, furniture flying, endangering other students in the way, and those girls are hauled down to the office by the School Resource Officer, and the next day they are back in the classroom?  Who is really in control here? And by the way, you better beef up your classroom management because your administrator will tell you that if your classroom management was up to par a fight wouldn’t have happened. It’s your fault.

So, color me NOT surprised when you talk about a teacher shortage. I don’t regret my time in the classroom at all. There were times, with my students, that teaching felt like the best job in the world. But there were other times that teaching left you beat down and in tears at the end of the day.

It made the decision to retire at twenty-five years with an $500 per month pay cut in my pension easier. If I could have made to thirty-years I’d have gotten a better pension, but I absolutely could not do it. I was done.

And now, in the face of this teacher shortage, I never even consider going back.

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