The NPR shop now sells a canvas tote bag called "The Nina Toten' Bag". How campy and NPR is that? I love it.
Today I subbed for the Oakland Military Institute for 7th and 8th grades. It's a public charter school that has nothing to do with the actual military, it's not ROTC or anything like that, but they claim to have adopted the organizational structure of the military to make kids succeed in the classroom. From what I saw, it's not working. They make their kids wear this ridiculous blue running suit uniform with a picture ID name tag clipped to the collar. Seems less like army and more prison if you ask me, but they seem to think it's working. Lining up in front of the door does not help the students concentrate and there is absolutely no parallel between the behavior in that line and their behavior in the classroom.
The most important factor it seems is the committment of the permanent teacher. Students only react to a substitute when they know that they'll still be accountable to their teacher. What was that Harry Potter silencing spell again?
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- Rena
- I live, work and write in the East Bay. I try to keep the whine at a minimum, and the wine at leisure.
3 comments:
Obviously someone has never actually been to a prison... but you are close to Oakland, and from what my Dad says about juvinielle (wrong spelling) delinquints up there, is that it's terrible up there near, around and smack dab in the center of Oakland. Don't know how close you are to Oakland, but it's a system probably in it's test phase. Was it fun??
If you'd like to move out east a bit I have an assistant position open :)
Well, no, obviously I haven't been to prison, but I also wasn't trying to make a direct comparison. I just don't think that putting inner city kids into uniform and making them march is going to teach them how to succeed in the real world.
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