Day 123-124: The Praxis of Pedagogy

Credentialling classes are starting next week. The horror!!! Just when I was starting to feel sane and able to deal with teaching. Then along comes the credentialling process. The process is so ridiculous. No Child Left Behind has been absolutely terrible for education. AL's teacher friend knows this guy that works special ed. The severely handicapped special ed. The kine job where at some point in the day you're going to be wiping a teenager's ass. It's a hard core job. Having worked with the mentally handicapped, it takes serious heart. I didn't have it in me. The job bummed me out frankly. Anyways, this guy can't keep his job cause he can't pass the CSET test. What the fuck does he need to know that's on a standardized test to work with severely handicapped kids??? The process drives good people away. And the fees to pay for the CSET!!!! Ridiculous. But you have to pass the CBEST first. That is the barebones minimum test that allows you to be a sub. There's the fee for that too. Then you have to be in a school. Take out some loans. All to get a low pay job where you're overworked. NCLB has made it where some schools can only hire teachers with certifications. All the impediments to the goal narrow the pool of talent to a few highly dedicated and/or financially comfortable group of people. So we got a lot of white women in teaching. Bless their hearts for being there, but there needs to be more diversity in the pool. Not every kid is able to relate to a middle class white lady. You can read all the books in the world about teaching but it don't mean shit until you get in a classroom full of kids and have to actually orchestrate the kids.

I keep the school counselor very busy. I'm constantly referring people to her. At least 2 kids a week. So many kids need mental health counseling. It's really quite sad. One of the positive things that I have gotten out of teacher ed is the idea of teaching reading as a form of psychotherapy. So I'm really trying to break down the psychology of the character of Okonkwo. He really is a rich character that leads a tragic life. His extreme machismo and inability to truly be intimate with a person is beautifully told. This on the backdrop of European colonialism makes for a very interesting read. I find it very fucked up funny that the "old school" English department at AL's school bashes this book. People have called it incoherent and unreadable. Ok... I'll say it. Cracker ass crackers!!!! There I said it. Wow... I do feel better.

So I helped bring the staff into the 21st century by getting them to use this grading software called Easy Grade Pro. The people that have been using it are all really into it. But there are some on the staff that are so technology-phobic. It's really quite sad. And so since I am the most familiar with the software, I've taken on the job of creating the progress reports using the software. But I can't do my job completely until I have all the names and grades from people. This of course hasn't happened since the techno-phobes haven't got the program up and running.

My school is under heat and is being threatened with shutdown. We are trying to put the ducks in a row so that we can better fight our adversary. Our domain name should be up tomorrow or Friday and hopefully we can have a bare-bones website up by the 1st of the month.

It's big time classist and racist the way public education does the low income urban youth. In my opinion, it is unjust the way my kids are treated by the system. I'm not talking about things parents or kids may have done. Good and bad choices have been made. But if I'm going to do an institutional or structural analysis of the public education system, then I'd say it is totally fucked up and needs some dire help. Yup... my analysis is essentially FUBAR.