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Showing posts with label malpractice of education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label malpractice of education. Show all posts

Monday, August 8, 2022

School Hiring Today?

Is this what we've come to?  Is it any wonder that our schools are failing in their primary task, that of teaching an academic program of studies?  
Social engineering rules the day!

Personal anecdote....

Back in the Stone Age (1973 A.D.), when I was fresh out of college and certified to teach Spanish at the secondary-school level, I interviewed for my first teaching position, a job in the local public-schools system; at that time, the director of personnel interviewed all applicants who had made the first cut. 

I very nearly didn't get the job because I had graduated summa cum laude from the university and had a background as a private-school student. I was told of those two failings in no uncertain terms. I responded, "So, you want to hire teachers who have an inferior knowledge of the subject matter?"

The interview promptly ended.  No job for me.

I went home in angry tears, my mind racing: 

Why had I bothered to work so hard during my four years at the university? 

During my time as a student teacher, why had I bothered to show that I could generate lesson plans which spoke to both the excellent and the below-average? 

How would I ever get a job in my chosen field? 

At that time, no private school in Northern Virginia would hire any new teachers without at least one full year of previous teaching experience, and that experience had to come from having taught in a public-schools system.

I was devastated.

But all's well that ends well.

My mother happened to know the county superintendent of public schools, who had previously been the director at a very prominent private school in Northern Virginia. As such, he had always stood for excellence in education and he continued to do so as the county superintendent of public schools.

Mom made the call. 

He was stunned and infuriated that the director of personnel had taken hiring new teachers to the lowest common denominator! The big push at that time on the part of the county superintendent of public schools was a program called "Commitment to Education," an overall goal promoting both excellence of character and academic achievement.  All in all, it was a good program.

Needless to say, the county superintendent of public schools intervened on my behalf, and I got the job.  I went on to teach for the county for five years.  Why I gave up that position is another story for another time.

All of the above said, I am not in the least bit surprised that today's hiring of teachers has sunk to the lowest common denominator of our day: the hiring of outspoken, proselytizing sexual deviants.

Monday, July 18, 2022

Tales from the Classroom



On Fridays, via Zoom, I teach a small English class of rising Ninth Graders who are in the Gifted and Talented Program in Fairfax County Public Schools. Yes, they truly are advanced students! 

I soon discovered, however, that these students are remedial when it comes to their study of classical literature — even the study of American Classical Literature, which is, comparatively speaking, easy to read and understand. 

We have in our literature book Of Places, an Abeka Book that I chose for these private classes, a selection titled "Adapted from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving, the Father of the American Short Story.  When I made that assignment, I discovered that my students knew absolutely nothing about Washington Irving and his works.  Indeed, they had never even heard of Rip Van Winkle!

Recently, during class time, I introduced my students to the video below of an abridged version of "Rip Van Winkle."  All of the students loved it!


Public schools are making a grave mistake in neglecting to have students study classical works. A deliberate neglect? Yes! After all, classics of literature often teach valuable moral lessons — such as the moral lessons stated at the end of the above video.

Monday, April 11, 2022

Unhinged Teachers

In my view, the individuals such as those below should be drummed out of the field of education. They aren't really teachers but rather _____________ [you fill in the blank]:

See the two relatively-mild examples embedded below:


The madness is not limited to matters of "gender identity":
More madness at Libs of Tik Tok on Twitter.  Take just a few minutes to see posts on that site.

Child abuse in the name of "education"!  Malpractice of education!

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