Tuesday, August 01, 2006
From the Unblogged Files of the Invisible Ben: Day #2 (Divine Guidance)
As mentioned in my previous post, summer vacation is a time for administrators and teachers to reflect upon changes that will take place in the coming school year. With August officially upon them, the administrative team at Underwood is almost certainly weighing some vital changes to the school's faculty and staff. Since the partial adoption of site selection, a joint administration-teacher committee must approve new appointees following an interview. All well and good, but consider the sheer number of staff vacancies they need to fill. The following is only a partial list but based on the end of year retirement dinner and staff buffet, Underwood will need to find at least:
Along with the vacancies listed above, there were a few personnel shuffles at the end of the year. One of our chief disciplinarians has been demoted to the role of noon time aide (NTA for short). There had been complaints that he played favorites with students, ignored certain violations of the rules, and had generally been ineffective. He is a proud man and I'm not sure the demotion was justified, but there it is. I'm not sure how many noon time aides will be back next year. They fill a strange niche in the school hierarchy as a third party, beyond the administrators and teaching staff, off of whom students might play. Some interact with the students as though they were members of their own family. Some act like friends. Some just ignore them and try to get some reading done. In any case, they are typically less than effective at curtailing hallwalking or other violations of school rules, but at least there's an adult there to call for help if things get seriously out of hand.
The NTA's have hearts in the right place, I'll give them that. However, sometimes their tactics leave something to be desired. Consider the following document I found one NTA distributing to students in her hallway on the third floor near the beginning of the year. I've kept it on file since then in hopes of writing a more extensive discussion of the role of religion in the Underwood community. I may still pick that up later, but for now I'll simply say this. I like the idea of teaching our students to have a stronger sense of morality, and most of the "Commandments" below hold at least a nugget of value regardless of one's religious beliefs. That said, distributing religiously-themed literature in public schools during the regular school day strikes me as crossing the line. There are all sorts of guidance that authority figures in our schools should be providing to student, but.I really don't think "divine" is on the list.
In any event, read on and form your own opinions.
As mentioned in my previous post, summer vacation is a time for administrators and teachers to reflect upon changes that will take place in the coming school year. With August officially upon them, the administrative team at Underwood is almost certainly weighing some vital changes to the school's faculty and staff. Since the partial adoption of site selection, a joint administration-teacher committee must approve new appointees following an interview. All well and good, but consider the sheer number of staff vacancies they need to fill. The following is only a partial list but based on the end of year retirement dinner and staff buffet, Underwood will need to find at least:
- 3 English teachers
- 3 Math teachers
- 2 Science teachers
- 2 Special Education teachers
- 1 Art Teacher
- 1 Business teacher
- 1 Vice Principal
Along with the vacancies listed above, there were a few personnel shuffles at the end of the year. One of our chief disciplinarians has been demoted to the role of noon time aide (NTA for short). There had been complaints that he played favorites with students, ignored certain violations of the rules, and had generally been ineffective. He is a proud man and I'm not sure the demotion was justified, but there it is. I'm not sure how many noon time aides will be back next year. They fill a strange niche in the school hierarchy as a third party, beyond the administrators and teaching staff, off of whom students might play. Some interact with the students as though they were members of their own family. Some act like friends. Some just ignore them and try to get some reading done. In any case, they are typically less than effective at curtailing hallwalking or other violations of school rules, but at least there's an adult there to call for help if things get seriously out of hand.
The NTA's have hearts in the right place, I'll give them that. However, sometimes their tactics leave something to be desired. Consider the following document I found one NTA distributing to students in her hallway on the third floor near the beginning of the year. I've kept it on file since then in hopes of writing a more extensive discussion of the role of religion in the Underwood community. I may still pick that up later, but for now I'll simply say this. I like the idea of teaching our students to have a stronger sense of morality, and most of the "Commandments" below hold at least a nugget of value regardless of one's religious beliefs. That said, distributing religiously-themed literature in public schools during the regular school day strikes me as crossing the line. There are all sorts of guidance that authority figures in our schools should be providing to student, but.I really don't think "divine" is on the list.
In any event, read on and form your own opinions.
